WATER WORK
Congressman visits Capital Region, touting importance of infrastructure
"I think as a municipal official, my biggest fear, well other than somebody getting hurt from police or DPW, the biggest fear that I have is that catastrophic infrastructure moment that could bankrupt the town." — East Greenbush Town Supervisor Jack Conway
With a major piece of bipartisan legislation awaiting a final vote on the House floor, U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko spent the past week learning more about the area’s drinking water systems and hearing from experts throughout parts of the Capital Region.
Tonko, D-Amsterdam, said he wanted to visit different drinking water systems throughout the Capital Region so that he could bring awareness to the issue and to hear from experts, business and community leaders on the importance of these systems for protecting public health, preventing utility rate hikes from hitting consumers, and supporting jobs, local businesses and the regional economy.
The need to maintain drinking water systems has been an issue that Tonko — whose congressional district includes parts of Renssealer and Saratoga counties — has been working on during his tenure.
Tonko has introduced drinking water legislation known as the AQUA Act in three consecutive sessions of Congress. The bill would provide support to state and local governments working to maintain, upgrade and replace their existing local drinking water systems. Tonko was able to secure several major provisions from that legislation in H.R. 3387, the Drinking Water System Improvement Act of 2017, a major bipartisan bill that was
passed out of the Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Environment, where he serves as Ranking Member, as well as through the full Energy & Commerce Committee. It now awaits a vote by the full House.
Tonko was also a part of H.R. 3387, the Drinking Water System Improvement Act of 2017, which would replenish EPA’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF), providing $8 billion over five years. The DWSRF is the primary source of federal funding for drinking water systems.
On Thursday morning, Tonko paid a visit to the city of Rensselaer and the town of East Greenbush’s water pumping station on Cross Street in Troy.
According to local officials, Rensselaer buys its municipal water from Troy. Troy gets its water from the spring-fed Tomhannock Reservoir. Water flows from the reservoir to the Troy Water Treatment Plant, which removes any sediment, contaminants and any organisms. Finished water is held Ed Dillon, the water plant operator of the pump station in Troy, shows U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko the backup water system. in two 5 million gallon tanks and then sent through the distribution system and to surrounding communities. In 2014, Rensselaer had a $7 million project approved from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund. This funding was used to upgrade its pump station, build new water storage and replace a water distribution main.
“Water is treated as a lesser infrastructure [yet] we know without water in a number of these industrial parks there’s no operation going on, there’s no jobs maintained, our schools require [safe drinking water] and in our households it is an essential commodity,” said Tonko while visiting the pump station Thursday.
Numerous local elected officials and water pump employees were on hand during Tonko’s visit including East Greenbush Town Supervisor Jack Conway, who said he appreciates Tonko taking the time to highlight this issue.
“I think as a municipal official, my biggest fear, well other than somebody getting hurt from police or DPW, the biggest fear that I have is that catastrophic infrastructure moment that could bankrupt the town,” said Conway during the tour. “When the weather gets below 20 degrees, I just wait for the notifications for the water main breaks.”
Tonko said he is hopeful that President Donald Trump’s infrastructure plan gets rejected. The plan includes $200 billion in federal funds that are intended to stimulate more than $1.5 trillion in spending mostly from local and state governments and private entities over a decade.
“I’m hoping that we reject the presidential plan, because to me it doesn’t come close to what we need for roads and bridges, nonetheless all these other items related to infrastructure,” said Tonko.