ERMUSR MISC. ISSUES 01-13-2004 - Laserfiche WebLink

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VIEWPOINT Associations Debate Water Tax Issue here is a debate boiling on how to help cities paw. A water tax is not a new idea. Other countries and for the cost of funding drinking water and waste- some regions have such a tax. And there's no doubt a water infrastructure improvements. One suggestion water-use tax could raise a significant amount of rhar's causing a rift in the industry is the concept of a money By some estimates. Americans use 25 trillion federal water tax. gallons of water a year. Even at S1 per thousand gal- lons,such a tax could generate tar more than the esti- W ile everyone agrees that there is a huge need for additional Funding for water infrastructure, there is lit- mated "gaps" that exist in current funding for water tle agreement on how that need should be filled. infrastructure. Members of the Water Sounds like a reasonable idea, right? Of course, the Infrastructure Network have money would sink into a federal bureaucracy and would called for the establishment of be a nightmare to administer. And the money filtering a federal trust fund to provide back to the individual utilities would no doubt come with • an automatic appropriation strings attached—in the form of onerous federal rules. for water infrastructure, but again, how to fund that And what about drinking water? I don't know that appropriation is unclear. the same arguments in support of a wastewater tax apply for drinking water. Typically, drinking water is The Association of used and financed locally. Yet, in many ways, the need Metropolitan Water Agencies is just as great has suggested that some sort of tax on water might be the answer. In the last few Drinking water associations, however, are very months the association has released two papers that much opposed to a tax on drinking water. The discuss funding mechanisms for wastewater infrastruc- American Water Works Association, the Association of ture. Metropolitan Water Agencies and the National Rural Water Association have all come out against such a tax. AMSA argues that wastewater treatment systems have an impact far beyond the borders of a specific city or In fact, the issue threatens to tear apart the Water town, especially in this age of watershed management. Infrastructure Network. As an example,the association talks about a generic city Although I see the need, and understand AMSA's upstream from a sensitive estuary and public beach. arguments,I tend to side with the drinking water folks. With no wastewater treatment, the city pays noth- No tax is a good tax, in my book. And one thing is ing, but pollution could destroy the ecosystem and guaranteed, if you institute a tax to solve a problem, drive people away from the beaches. On the other the problem may go away but the tax never will! hand, properly treating the wastewater is a financial burden for the city and its residents. Is it fair to make the city's residents pay the full cost of preserving an ecosystem that other, non-paying cit- izens enjoy? ANI compares wastewater — and its associated watershed management—to highways,transit systems, /Eifel giesaL, airports, and inland waterways, all of which are sup- ported by federal tax dollars. James Laughlin, Editor •