Next we hear about Water Infrastructure investment. Officials discussed how the impact on your community. This will be about two hours. I am happy to be with my colleagues. I think it is an e i hope we remember to do this, its been a while. Im delighted to be able to be with my colleagues. I think it is a encouraging emissary. I feel it today. We did a lot of good work before we broke for the recess. Still plenty of work to do, but i am encouraged to open up. To get off with this. The committee house, oversight hearing. Drinking water and wastewater privileges. Today we will expand upon those efforts. Focusing on the Drinking Water programs. Nearly 2 years after becoming law, bipartisan infrastructure hoping to make clean water for millions of households, schools, child care facilities across the country. The benefits of this law continue to become a reality in more communities across america, our committee is anxious to hear from stakeholders about how you believe the work is progressing . If we can make improvements. Everything we do, we know we can do better. Investing in the Water Infrastructures is deeply personal to me. Growing up in West Virginia and virginia, my sister and i lived near streams like beaverton, not even 100 feet from our house. It was a stream contaminated by septic thanks and other ways. Later south of the cohigh rigor which eventually caught fire. Could not believe it. It did. Both of those experiences gave me immediate importance of water in our daily lives. Clean water is critical to our health and nations economy. As many of us know, to care for those who are giving those who are thirsty something to drink. I believe that includes a moral obligation to ensure all americans have access to clean and safe water services. Im not alone in that. President biden, and me and others, went to the oval office. Cast us to lead charge on the investments. Including highway, bridges, and Water Systems. We rolled up our sleeves, we got to work after that meeting. I along with the staff worked together for the draft for the Water Infrastructure act. We got it passed unanimously. 892 though. I will never forget that day. I can write to our committee. We are enormously proud. Highway legislation, bipartisan infrastructure. Signed into law in 2021. What a day. To date, the infrastructure law is the single largest investment for Water Infrastructure in the nations history. We invested 55 billion to improve wasteWater Systems and Drinking Water throughout the country. Addressing contaminants. It was fully paid for. There is more that needs to be done. And more that can be done. My hope that todays hearing will allow us to gain a deeper understanding of the amplification of how it is going. We also have the chance to explore future opportunities to improve the infrastructure. Make sure that the laws programs are benefiting communities with the greatest need. Im excited to hear from all of the witnesses, i want to welcome back keisha to the pw committee. Testified it. Her testimony was instrumental to move the package forward and we look forward to hearing your perspective on the loss implementation. It is not our first hearing. Examining the infrastructure needs, it wont be the last either. As you recall earlier this year we had held a meeting that with apa administration, radical fox. I love to say that name. Just this past may, senators, held a water affordability meeting. Looking at the Assistance Programs, additional changes might be necessary to make those programs function even better. Later this month, the same subcommittee looked at tribal water needs. I hope the series of hearings will help inform us of what more we can do to ensure these programs continue to get even better as we face changes in our climate, population, and infrastructure needs. With that, i am grateful for the witnesses to agree to be witnesses. Representing state perspectives, before we do that, we will hear from ranking members for opening remarks. Thank you. Its great to be back. I hope you had a nice break. This is a great opportunity for the committee to get an update from stakeholders on the progress as the chairman has outlined out very explicitly. I thank all of you for being here, some of which we have seen before. It is nice to see you back in front of the committee. Todays hearing will focus on the critical importance of safe and efficient drinking and wasteWater Systems. It is vital that all americans have access to reliable water and sanitation that they can afford. The Drinking Water and wasteWater Infrastructure act offered by this committee is a critical component of the investment and jobs act. It has introduced new programs and opportunities for the current needs and challenges for rural and his advantage communities. We will examine the current state of Water Resources and the challenges we face safeguarding them. It was meant to ensure that every individual has access to clean and healthy Drinking Water and wastewater. How other policies may help or hinder unity efforts to provide. Authorize 55 billion funding for lead Service Line Replacement and support for innovative water technology. The aija recognizes many communities are struggling with emerging contaminants such as p5. Small rural and disadvantage often ask Technical Expertise to tackle these challenges, leaving them vulnerable to Water Quality issues and Public Health risk. They offer opportunities for grants, low interest loans and technical systems to help ease these burdens. It is crucial to ensure resources are directed toward the communities that are most in need based on actual Public Health and environmental risks. The federal government will also provide the necessary Technical Assistance and training to support these programs. Many of the small communities do not have Technical Expertise. However, i have concerns regarding the epas to direct from congress substantial investments to the nations Water Infrastructure. The apa has repeatedly tried to impose his policies priorities on communities often in violation of the 30s reserved to them under the clean water act. Obligations to meet vague Environmental Justice goals and inconsistent and untimely waivers have led to delays, cost overruns and legal uncertainty. These are necessary obstacles opposed by federal regulators are inappropriate when elevated inflation eats away at Infrastructure Investments that the American People need and were demanded of congress. Additional threats may come from other environmental regulations. In particular, failure to provide reLiability Protections for Water Systems will slam Water Systems and will only enrich trial attorneys. We discussed it, West Virginia had to deal with pfass contamination. Both industrial and military sites with two major sources naturally. It is had broad bipartisan support over the years. That is why i find it perplexing to hear that environmental groups are actively lobbying against protections for Water Systems and other passage receivers. With p fives going back decades and protection for the Drinking Water, there will be an increasing need to protect the water system which had no hand in creating or no benefit from these chemicals. Maximizing the benefits of the aa ja investment. With everybody in attendance, water and fracture. Environmental health and economic development. The successes we have had to date have been based in cooperative federalism for the clean water acts. Communities and states know their needs the best. They need a helping hand from the government that not a heavy hand. Thank you for all you do to keep the water system clean, healthy, and i look forward to hearing from you. Thank you. Im going to introduced they will introduce, powell. Turning to secretary hes the secretary of the North Carolina department of environmental quality. My wife sends her best. The position you hold is a position since Governor Cooper appointed you about three years ago in 2021. This is your second tour of duty at the agency. Served as the department of legislator. August of 2023, she was elected to serve as president of the Environmental Council of state. Nonpartisan Association Environmental agency leaders, working to improve capability of agencies. Im delighted you are here. Thank you for joining us. Maybe i should introduce the other two . We will hold off. Go ahead. We will come back to introduce ms. Powell and introduce eric. Thank you. Members of the committee, i appreciate the opportunity to be here today. The investment and jobs act, and investment that has helped enable the infrastructure. One of North Carolinas top rarities, to ensure everyone in the state has access to clean Drinking Water and reliable Water Infrastructure. Without that, nothing else matters. I want to start out to share a story about the community of in North Carolina. The residents have been fighting for decades for the chance to enact the Public Water System. We had an opportunity to hear from the residents about what it was like knowing when they wash white clothes that they would come out brown from the well water. When it got cold, the water pump would go out and a lot of times it would not have water at all. In 2022, thanks to federal funding, we awarded 13. 2 million grant to run 40 miles of water line to connect the hundred 50 homes to the county water system for the first time. Other systems in our state are failing infrastructure. Pumping stations that are being inundated as we have more frequent storm events. Some are serviced by terra cotta pipes or in liberty, North Carolina, they have orangeburg lines. It basically is wood pulp filled with her. They are disintegrating in the ground. Its vital that we can find the needs to improve resiliency of the system and to help the residents. I will add that North Carolina had a head start on handling large sums of infrastructure dollars. The state leaders chose to allocate a significant portion of the dollars to water and for structure. 1. 9 billion. The first thing we did was evaluate processes. Its easy to send money, but the challenge is to invest it well. To ensure the record amount of funding we received reach the communities like this, we ever imagined the grant making process. We canvassed every Health County department to those who did not have access to clean Drinking Water. We conducted outreach to nearby facilities to ensure they knew about these communities and encouraged them to do project connect. We want to make sure it was not just the wellfunded biggest utilities that were ready to go. We give everybody in North Carolina the opportunity to benefit from these dollars. Im proud to say the changes are resulting in more than 2000 homes being connected to public water for the first time. North carolina also has significant levels of p fast contamination. We especially worry about the cost and burden on our small towns that cannot afford the additional cost associated with treatment without outside help. Epa administrator, came to North Carolina, a small town that discovered high levels of pfas contamination. Illustrating the type of community it intended to help. The facility in North Carolina gave us early experience to deal with pfas was discovered in the river in 2017, we recognized pfas is larger than one company or chemical. We have been working with public Water Systems to assess pfas levels and help prepare for Upcoming NationalDrinking Water standards. We have identified 43 of county Drinking Water systems that served 3 Million People that will need to take action in order to come to clients with the proposed protections. We are learning from and working with the public Water Systems already set up. I will give you an example of the cape fear of authority who spent 43 million on installation of a granular filtration system to treat pfas coming from the river. From their experience, we know the testing and planning has to take place before you are ready to construct a treatment system. The work can take a year to do. To help other utilities prepare , we are making a significant portion of the early rounds of contaminant funding from, healthy systems identify and design the best Treatment Systems for their situation. We appreciate the 23 million per year, every five years, that they are receiving from urging contaminant. This shows how much we will need. What we are getting so far is just scratching the surface. We estimate that just for our state, it will take between 661 million and one great 1. 3 billion. That number does not take into account the number of small Water Systems which we are currently testing. All of this is on top of our normal Water Infrastructure needs because we have not invested for too long. 26 million over the next 20 years. This reinforces the importance of the committees work and of the state Revolving Funds. I recognize that this is the policy and not appropriations committee. As the newly elected president , i would like to bring the committee the longterm threat that is being imposed with the appropriation bills. We are concerned about these developments using congressionally directed spending out of these funds. To promote cuts would be devastating for the states capacity to cover these needs and it is crucial to protect Public Health and the environment throughout the country. Using the appropriations can offset cuts in the federal funding, it undermines the opportunity provided by the legislation. It was intended to extend affordable to more communities than ever before. Is not the time to take our foot off the gas pedal. We will never stop working to ensure we all have reliable Drinking Water and infrastructure. Thank you for allowing me to be here today. Since you have been elected, do you prefer to be called, president , madam president , or madame secretary . Secretary, is fine good enough. Chairman, it is a pleasure to have keisha with us. Her help in the work of this committee has been greatly appreciated. Shes a Dynamic Force in the global water sector for 24 years. In the public and private sector across the United States. And, london, england. She is the general manager and ceo of the Washington Suburban commission. Thats the largest Water Utility in the state of maryland. She manages 1680 team members. The daytoday operations of the Water Systems. 1. 9 million customers. Its an incredible responsibility that she has. She has demonstrated great leadership in that regard. She is a licensed professional engineer in maryland. We always give plugs to the Great Schools in maryland. I want to thank her, the mayor Just Announced his appointments to the task force set up for the Regional Task force in baltimore. The Sanitary Commission does not have jurisdiction in baltimore, but she is lending her expertise because we need to find the best way to manage our Water Systems in the baltimore area. I thank her for the willingness to serve. Thank you for being with us today. Ms. Paul, you are recognized. It is good to be raised and educated in baltimore. Good morning and thank you. Thank you for the invitation to testify. I am keisha powell, i would like to recognize the board of commissioners and chair, regina. We have the honor of serving more than issue here . Shes not. We have the honor of serving more than 1. 9 million customers across Montgomery County as the largest Water Utility in the state of maryland. The eighth largest in the country. The scale of utility differs across the water sector, we all seek similar challenges. The need to balance affordability with investments and critical infrastructure. For the passage of the Infrastructure Investments and jobs act, made us hopeful that the historic funding l