This is about two hours. I am happy to be with my colleagues. I think it is an encouraging atmosphere, i noticed it yesterday on the floor, and again today. We did a lot of good work before the recess. Got plenty of work still to do. I am delighted to kick it off with this hearing. In march our Committee Held its first oversight hearing on the bipartisan infrastructure laws, Drinking Water and wastewater provisions. Today we will expand upon those after focusing on the laws on Drinking Water. Nearly two years after becoming law, bipartisan infrastructure law is helping to help make is helping to make clean water a reality for communities, schools and childcare facilities. As the benefits of this law continue to become a reality in morecambe committees across america, our committee is anxious to hear from stakeholders about how you believe this work is progressing. And if we can make any improvements. Mike rawlings heard me say my colleagues heard me say anything i can do we know we can do better. Investing in our nations Water Infrastructure is deeply personal to me. Growing up in West Virginia and virginia, my sister and i lived near rivers and streams like beavercreek 100 feet from our house. Just outside of beckley was a stream contaminated by septics and tanks. About a two hour drive south of the Cuyahoga River. In pennsylvania i was reading on the news that the coyote of the Cuyahoga River caught fire. The question is what we are going to do about it. Both of those experiences ingrained in me the importance of water in our daily lives. From protecting our beaches and wetlands to maintaining Service Lines, clean water is cortical to our nations economy. As many of us know, matthew 25 calls on us to care for those who are in need. Including giving those who are thirsty something to drink. I believe that includes a moral obligation to ensure that all americans have access to clean, safe and reliable water services. Fortunately i am not alone in that belief. Shortly after taking office, President Biden invited me and others to the oval office. He tasked us with a leading the charge on updating of federal Infrastructure Investments, including our highways, bridges and Water Systems. We rolled up our sleeves. We got to work after that meeting. We and our staffs worked together to draft the Drinking Water and wasteWater Infrastructure act. We invention this Bipartisan Legislation after our committee unanimously and posted it by an 892 vote. I will never forget that day. An 892 vote on some thing that came right through our committee and something we are normatively proud of. Are enormously proud of. The bipartisan infrastructure law present biden signed into law in november 2021, a day many of us will long remember. Today the bipartisan infrastructure law is the single largest water infra structure investment in our nations history. Through that law, congress is investing in an unprecedented 55 billion to improve Drinking Water and wasteWater Systems, including replacing lead Service Lines and addressing emerging contaminants. And it was fully paid for. Still, there is more than needs to be done. And what can be done . My hope is todays hearing will allow us to gain a deeper understanding of how the implementation of those historic funds is going. Our hearing also presents us with the chance to explore future opportunities to improve our Drinking Water infrastructure, and to make sure that the bipartisan infrastructure laws programs are benefiting communities with the greatest need too. While im excited to hear from all over witnesses, i want to take a moment to welcome back Keisha Powell to the committee. Ms. Powell testified before the committee in 2021 when we were drafting the water portion of the bipartisan infrastructure law. Her testimony was instrumental in moving that package forward and we look forward to hearing your perspective on the implementation today. As i mentioned, it is not a first hearing on examining our nations Water Infrastructure needs. It wont be the last either. Earlier this year we had a hearing with the epa System Administrator and other stakeholders to discuss some of these programs. Just this past may, senator padilla and others also held a water affordability hearing at the subcommittee level. While looking at low income Water Assistance Programs and what additional authorities or changes might be necessary to make those programs function even better. Later this month, that same subcommittee will be reviewing tribal water needs. I hope this series of hearings will help us and inform us of what we can do to ensure that these programs continue to work even better as we face changes in our climate, our population and infrastructure needs. With that, i am grateful to gree t our panel of witnesses. We look forward to hearing from you today as you represent state perspectives, city Water Utilities and rural water. Before that we will hear from the Ranking Member. You are recognized. Thank you, chairman carper. Hope you had a nice break in the beautiful state of delaware. This is a great opportunity for the committee to get an update from stakeholders on the progress, as the chairman has lined out explicitly, on what was enacted in the bipartisan infrastructure jobs act. It is nice to see you back in front of the committee. Todays hearing will focus on the critical importance of clean and efficient Drinking Water and wastewater symptoms 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 authored by this committee is a critical component of the Infrastructure Investment and jobs act. It introduced new programs to meet the current needs and challenges in small, rural and disaffected communities. During this hearing we will hear the challenges we face in safeguarding our communities, the failure of and for mentation of policies from the iija, which was meant to ensure every individual has access to clean and healthy Drinking Water and wastewater, and how other federal policies may be helping or hindering efforts for communities to provide for the residents. The iija authorized 55 billion in funding for a variety of Water Infrastructure programs. These programs aim to address the issues faced by our nations Water Infrastructure, including grants for small and disadvantaged communities, funding for lead Service Line Replacement and support for innovative water technologies. The iija recognizes many committees are struggling with aging infrastructure and emerging contaminants. Small, rural and disadvantaged committees often lack the resources and expertise to tackle these challenges, leaving them vulnerable to Water Quality issues and Public Health risks. The iija offers funding opportunities for grants, lowinterest loans, and Technical Assistance to ease some of these burdens. As we work to implement and secure funding for these programs, its crucial to ensure resources are directed toward the communities most in need based on actual Public Health and environmental risks. The federal government must also provide the necessary Technical Assistance and training to support these programs. Many of our smoke amenities do not have the technical expertise. Our small communities do not have the technical expertise. I have concerns regarding the epa implement and directives from congress as it devotes substantial investments to our nations Water Infrastructure. The epa has repeatedly tried to impose its policies on states and communities, often in violation of the Authority Given to them by the safe water and dragging safe Drinking Water act. Obstacles imposed by federal regulators are especially inappropriate when elevated inflation eats away at historic Infrastructure Investment that America Needs and that were demanded of congress. Additional threats to reliability and affordability may come from other environmental regulations. In particular, failure to provide Liability Protections for Water Systems facing contamination will slam and Water Systems slam our Water Systems and only enrich trial attorneys. West virginia had to deal with pfas kim and nation pfas contamination. The concept of polluter pays has had broad bipartisan support over the years. That is why i find it truly perplexing to hear that environmental groups are actively lobbying against protection for Water Systems and other passive receivers. With pfas contamination going back decades and regulatory efforts to protect our Drinking Water, which i support, there will be an increasing need to support to protect our water system that had no hand in creating these chemicals. As we look to preserve safety and affordability of drinking and wasteWater Systems for the future, and maximize the benefits of the iijas investment, protecting passive receivers is Something Congress must get right. I will close by saying everyone in attendance already knows Water Infrastructure investments are critical to Public Health, Environment Health and economic develop. The successes we have had today have been based in cooperative federalism and enshrined in the safe Drinking Water and clean water acts. Communities and states know their needs the best and need a helping hand from the government, but not a heavy hand. Thank you for all you do to keep our countrys water and wasteWater Systems clean and healthy. I look forward to hearing your perspectives on these issues. Sen. Carper thank you for those words and the opportunity to continue our important and wonderful efforts in this committee on this front. I will introduce the secretary. I think senator cramer and will introduce eric. The secretary of the North Carolina department of environment equality. My wife sends her best. She is in North Carolina. The position you hold is a position i think you held since Governor Cooper appointed you to that leadership role about two or three years ago. This is your second tour of duty at the agency, having previously served as the departments director of legislative and intergovernmental affairs. In august of 2023, ms. Biser was elected to serve as president of the Environmental Council of s tate, a National Nonprofit association, Agency Leaders working to improve the capability of the states environmental agencies. Thank you for joining us today. Please proceed. Before you do, maybe i should introduce the other two witnesses. No no, we will hold off. You go ahead and we will let ben introduce ms. Powell. Thank you, senator carper, members of the committee, i appreciate the opportunity to be with you today and talk about the Infrastructure Investment and jobs act and the transformative investment it has helped enable in North Carolinas Water Infrastructure. One of North Carolinas Top Priorities is ensuring that everyone in our state has access to clean Drinking Water and reliable Water Infrastructure. Because without that, nothing else matters. I want to start by sharing with you a story about the community in North Carolina. The residents have been fighting for decades for the chance to connect the Public Water System. Governor cooper and i had an opportunity to hear from these residents about what it was like, knowing that when they washed white clothes, it would come out brown stained from well water, and when it got cold the pumps would go out. In 2022, thanks to federal funding, we awarded a 13. 2 million grant to run 40 miles of water lines to connect 350 homes in ivanhoe to the county water system for the first time. Other systems in our state are facing failing infrastructure, pumping stations that are being inundated as we have more frequent and more severe storm events. Even in liberty, North Carolina, they have orangeburg lines. It is wood pulp filled with tar. They are literally disintegrating in the ground. It is vital that we confront each of the needs to improve the resiliency of our system and to protect the health of our residents. I will add North Carolina had a head start on handling large sums of Water Infrastructure dollars. Our state leaders chose to allocate a significant portion of our American Rescue plan dollars to Water Infrastructure. It was 9. 1 billion. The first thing we did was evaluate our processes. Its easy to spend money but the challenge is investing it well. In order to ensure the record amount of funding we received reached communities like ivanhoe, we reimagined our grantmaking process. We canvassed every county Health Department in the state to identify where we had communities who did not have reliable access to clean Drinking Water or sewer services. We conducted outreach to nearby utilities to ensure they knew about these committees and encouraged them to do projects to connect these folks. We wanted to make sure it was not just the wellfunded biggest utilities ready to go, that we gave everyone in North Carolina an opportunity to benefit from these dollars. The changes are resulting in so far more than 2000 homes slated to be connected to public water for the first time. North carolina also has significant levels of pfas contamination, which has affected rural and urban areas alike. We especially worry about the burden on our small towns who cannot afford to shoulder the additional costs associated with treatment without outside help. The epa administrator and a fellow north carolinian came to a small town that discovered high levels of pfas contamination which was likely the result of firefighting foam. To announce iija funding for communities to illustrate the type of community that was intended to help. While a facility in North Carolina gave us early experience in dealing with forever chemicals, when a pfas chemical known as gen x was discovered in a river in 2017, we recognize pfas is larger than one company or one chemical. Deq has been working with public Water Systems to assess pfas levels and help prepare for the Upcoming NationalDrinking Water standards. We identified 43 of our municipal and county Drinking Water systems that serve 3 Million People that will need to take action to come to compliance and protect public. We are learning from and working with the public Water Systems that have already addressed pfas in our state. I will give you an exhibit of the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority you spent 43 million who spent 43 million on a carbon filtration system to treat pfas coming from the cape fear river. We know the testing and planning and design work has to take place before you are ready to construct a treatment system. This work can take a year to do. To help other utilities prepare, we are making a significant portion of the early rounds of early contaminant funding from iija available for planning grants to help these systems identify and design the best treatment system for their situation. We apprecia