WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., today supported Senate passage of the Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act of 2021, legislation which includes many provisions to improve water and wastewater systems in Mississippi and nationwide. Wicker was a cosponsor of the legislation.

“All Americans deserve to have access to safe, reliable, and affordable drinking water and wastewater services,” Wicker said. “Improving our aging infrastructure is critical to our nation’s future success. Passage of this legislation will help communities maintain and upgrade their water systems. I hope the House of Representatives takes up this legislation and the President signs it into law without delay.”

Among other provisions that would renew federal programs to support water and wastewater infrastructure, the legislation includes several items that Wicker championed. It would:

• Establish up to 40 pilot programs (based on Wicker’s Low-Income Water Customer Assistance Programs Act) to provide grants to drinking water and wastewater systems that serve low-income populations to ensure they have the resources they need to maintain and upgrade their systems.
• Reauthorize Wicker’s Grassroots Rural and Small Community Water Systems Assistance Act, which provides technical assistance grants that help small and rural communities achieve compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act.
• Allow states to use up to two percent of their Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) dollars to provide technical assistance to small and rural water systems for compliance with federal regulations.
• Expand eligibility for technical assistance funding provided under the Grassroots Rural and Small Community Water Systems Assistance Act to include state based non-profit organizations that are governed by community water systems.
• Reauthorize the CWSRF and the DWSRF, which provide communities with low-cost financing for wastewater, storm water, and drinking water infrastructure projects.
• Require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to conduct a study of low-income households without access to affordable drinking water services, as included in Wicker’s Low-Income Water Customer Assistance Programs Act.