Construction industry groups are hopeful the House's swift passage of a multiyear authorization for wastewater funding bodes well for final congressional approval this year. The measure, which the House approved on March 5 by a 317-101 vote, would authorize $19.4 billion for wastewater infrastructure over the next five years. Of the total, $13.8 billion would go for Clean Water state revolving funds (SRFs), the principal financing source for wastewater projects. Funding would start at $2.4 billion in fiscal 2010, rise to $2.7 billion in 2011, then climb $100 million a year after that, to $3 billion in 2014. Clean Water SRF 2009 appropriation is $829 million. The bill also includes more than $2.5 billion in grants to address combined-sewer and sanitary-sewer overflows and $750 million to clean up contaminated sediments in the Great Lakes region.
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