Current Projects

McGovern Pushes CSO Funding Plan

by Michael W. Freeman - Herald News: 1/18/2001
(Article not in entirety)

Fed up with the high cost of Fall River's nearly $200 million combined sewer overflow project, Congressman James McGovern, D-Mass., hopes to tap into a new funding source: corporate polluters.

McGovern is sponsoring a bill to create a Clean Water Infrastructure Trust Fund. It would provide a permanent, self-sustaining funding mechanism for CSO construction work and other water infrastructure projects around the nation. McGovern explained that the CSO trust fund would be financed by fines imposed on violators of the Clean Water Act. In other words, McGovern wants to use fines imposed on corporate polluters to give grants to cities and states facing federal mandated cleanup projects. This is a new, innovative program to help cities deal with water and sewer fund problems," McGovern said. "I don't think there's a city in my district that doesn't have a project like this."

McGovern has been working with U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., to bring federal money to this region for water projects. Fall River is under court order to correct CSOs, which have been dumping raw sewage and rainwater into Mount Hope Bay, in violation of the Clean Water Act. The two congressmen have been able to get federal aid for the past seven years, for a total of $27 million in direct assistance to Fall River and New Bedford. The Whaling City has spent close to $200 million on sewer system improvements.

McGovern said he's frustrated that Congress does not provide direct federal grants to cities for CSO projects. In 1994, the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that it would cost a total of $41.2 billion for the 1,100 communities with combined sewer overflows to correct them.

"The Clean Water Trust Fund would be a permanent program," McGovern said. "It would be funded by polluters, and those whose policies are dangerous to the environment." McGovern notes that a 1993 study by former Massachusetts Congressman Gerry Studds indicated that fees imposed on industrial effluent would generate $2 billion annually; fees on pesticide or fertilizer production would produce $1 billion; and water sales another $1 billion annually.

"The notion that we can ignore these infrastructure problems is crazy. We can't," McGovern said. "This CSO problem here in Fall River is an environmental issue and a health issue and an economic issue. It's a critical issue, important for the health and well being of the people in these communities." McGovern has introduced the bill to the Environment and Water Subcommittee, which he serves on.

Still, he has no illusions that it will be easy to pass a bill like this. "It's an uphill battle because it calls for holding polluters responsible," he said. "But for me, that's a reasonable thing to do." Ed Hopkins, director of the environmental quality program for the Sierra Club, agreed that McGovern's plan has merit, but added, "I think that would be a challenging bill to pass in Congress. In the last couple of congresses, special interests have held sway on environmental issues." Hopkins added that fining polluters might not generate enough money to solve the nation's CSO problems.

"Combined sewer overflow problems are extremely expensive to correct," he said. "This could not be the sole source of the money for that. You'd never collect enough in fines and penalties to address combined sewer overflows." Still, Lambert said he fully welcomes more federal assistance. "It's always frustrating that you're dealing with a federal mandate without the feds paying for it," he said. "I testified before a congressional subcommittee back in 1990. Despite the advocacy of Barney and Jim, the members made it clear then that the funding for federal capital projects was drying up and just wouldn't happen. With President-elect Bush pressing for tax cuts, I fear there will be even less stomach for that."

McGovern said he presented the bill last year to U.S.Rep. Sherwood L.Boehlert, R-N.Y., chairman of the Water Resources Subcommittee, and the chairman was intrigued. However, because of term limits for committee chairman, Boehlert no longer heads that subcommittee and a new chairman hasn't been appointed yet.

McGovern said the trust fund would be administered by the EPA. He plans to lobby the EPA's new administrator, Christie Todd Whitman, when she gets confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

"Everything is not black and white," McGovern said. "The goal here is compliance, not to put companies out of business. What I'm trying to do is think creatively to help communities deal with this serious financial problem."

Kenneth Fiola, executive vice president of the Fall River Office of Economic Development, said the construction of a tunnel to carry rainwater from storm drains across the city to the Fall River Treatment Plant has not hurt the economy yet, but it has potential. "I don't think we've actually felt any impact of the CSO project from a business perspective," he said. "As the city incurs more costs associated with the CSO project, there's always the concerns that water and sewer rates will rise to offset the costs." Until now, Fall River's water and sewer rates have been among the lowest in the state. Local businesses, though, are nervous about rates increasing in the years ahead.

<Back