Water Organizations Push for Water Research Funding
A group of 10 water organizations, including AWWA, WEF, NAWC, as well as RCAP and ASCE, are requesting additional funding from Congress for water-related research. The appeal is contained in a letter (attached below) to the chair and ranking member of both the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees covering EPA’s budget. The letter points out the great need for water-related research and the relatively small percentage of EPA’s research budget that goes to water research, especially applied research that directly benefits water utilities. The groups encourage the appropriators to increase funding for two specific research programs. They recommend increasing the National Priorities Water Research grant program to $20 million and fully funding the Innovative Water Technologies grant program at $10 million for 2020.
Although the letter does not mention it, the President’s proposed 2020 budget would make drastic cuts to EPA’s research budget. The budget proposal zeros out the Water Quality Research and Support Grants and makes significant cuts to Safe and Sustainable Water Resources research. This makes the support of Congress even more critical to providing robust research for the future of the water sector.
