The newly enacted Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act holds promise for life in a world shaped by climate change. However, privatization proponents are working hard to privatize ownership and control our water infrastructure.

Given the era we live in, it should come as no surprise that legislation as important – and as potentially lucrative – as the Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA) includes opportunities for privatization. Those parts of the new water law will be analyzed in the next part of this overview of WRRDA.

Before diving into that big drink of water, it is worth taking a comparative sip of an important but smaller piece of legislation within WRRDA – the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, or WIFIA. The version of WIFIA that was enacted is intended to take an experimental approach to financing water projects. For example, WIFIA creates a five-year pilot program that provides $350 million of low-cost loans and credit enhancements for ports, inland waterways and water supply and treatment infrastructure projects. It is obvious that $350 million is far too little to address our water infrastructure needs. The experiment is intended to use that $350 million as a sort of seed money that […]