LOWELL, MA – Yesterday, Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, secured House passage of a federal funding authorization for water development projects in communities across the nation, including $20 million each for Lowell, Lawrence, Methuen, Haverhill, and Fitchburg. The inclusion of this federal funding followed testimony from Congresswoman Trahan before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee where she laid out the need to address combined sewage overflows (CSOs).
“Substantial federal investments are essential to complete long overdue sewage system upgrades across our district. That’s why I went to bat for this funding authorization that gets us one step closer to bringing home $100 million in sewage funding for Lowell, Lawrence, Methuen, Haverhill, and Fitchburg,” said Congresswoman Trahan. “I look forward to seeing this legislation signed into law so we can get to work securing funds through the appropriations process in the months ahead.”
This funding authorization was included in and passed yesterday as part of the Water Resources Development Act of 2022. Trahan secured authorization for $20 million each for Lowell, Lawrence, Methuen, Haverhill, and Fitchburg for water infrastructure projects targeting CSOs. The bipartisan legislation, including these investments in the Third District’s water infrastructure, passed the House earlier in June 2022 and then again earlier this week as part of the James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023. The funding now moves to the Senate. Once law, the community authorizations will be eligible for funding through the appropriations process.
The importance of these local investments cannot be underscored enough. In Lowell alone, the city has invested more than $150 million in combined sewage overflow control projects that have resulted in a 60% reduction in the annual volume of discharges from its combined sewer system. Yet, even with these upgrades, the sewage system has been forced to discharge an average of 300 to 450 million gallons of overflow in recent years.
Working with local officials and organizations, Trahan has advocated repeatedly for this kind of historic federal investment since she first took office in 2019 when the federal allocation for the EPA’s Sewer Overflow and Stormwater Reuse Municipal Grant Program sat at $0. Most recently, she supported passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which allocated $55 billion to upgrade community water systems and replace lead service lines across the nation. Of that funding, Massachusetts has begun receiving its portion of at least $1.1 billion headed to the state over the next half-decade to improve community water infrastructure.
