PROVIDENCE, RI -- State and EPA officials are urging state water regulators to look to EPA data as a way to provide information to Congress about ready-to-go infrastructure projects that could be included in a second stimulus package focused on drinking water and wastewater infrastructure funding.

House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has long been considering a second stimulus package, with the majority leader telling a Regional Plan Association meeting April 18, “with the economy slowing down and job losses accelerating, we  must also look for opportunities to take advantage of the stimulative effect of investing in infrastructure.”

Sources have long said that a second stimulus package is a key priority in the House and Senate, but a bill has yet to materialize this year in either body, and neither side is expected to push through much more in the short session between Congress reconvening next month and the November elections. Nevertheless, some sources say talks about a second stimulus package are still alive.

At the annual meeting of the Association of State & Interstate Water Pollution Control Administrators (ASIWPCA) here Aug. 18-20, key speakers from EPA, the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) and the National Association of Clean Water Agencies encouraged states to compile information about projects to have at the ready for House and Senate committee members.

EPA wastewater chief James Hanlon noted the agency is “currently in the process of doing the 2008 Clean Water Act needs survey,” which measures wastewater infrastructure needs by state. The Web-enabled data collection began in February, and all data are due around October, Hanlon said. While EPA took 22 months to compile the data for the last needs survey report, Hanlon reminded state officials that they all have access to their own state's data, which could be used to demonstrate projects and needs to Congress for a second stimulus package.

ECOS Executive Director Steve Brown impressed upon ASIWPCA members “the importance of you knowing the names, the numbers of people in need of money.” Brown said, “This is essentially what people want to know in Congress -- how many people are on the waiting list,” and how quickly they could receive funding that is appropriated. “This is a very hot item in Congress right now,” Brown added. “If we had all that information from all 50 states today, we could close this deal quickly.”

ASIWPCA Executive Director Linda Eichmiller noted that it has been difficult for states to pull together information for Congress because “it has political implications,” when you point out places that are ready to take money and build within 3 to 6 months of appropriations.

Adam Krantz of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies said states should consider for submission projects that have little red tape holding them back. Lawmakers “want to be able to get this money out” because a stimulus bill would be a “jobs program, basically,” he said. NACWA represents publicly owned treatment works.

“Some states have the project information and some states don't,” Eichmiller added.

But Brown cautioned the group, “when we can't provide that information, it leaves the impression that either we don't know what we're talking about, or there isn't really an [infrastructure] crisis.” He advised, “We don't necessarily need to know the name of the city.” Instead, he said, submit the size of the projects and number of cities “that if you had the money, they'd be eligible for a loan.”

Krantz noted that providing information for a stimulus package is “a very important way for us to at least minimally educate folks on the Hill about the gap” in funding for infrastructure.

EPA's 2004 Clean Watersheds Needs Survey, released earlier this year, showed national water infrastructure needs over the next 20 years to be $202.5 billion, an increase of 8.6 percent -- or $16.1 billion -- since it was last reported in 2000. The survey includes estimated needs for wastewater treatment systems, wastewater collection and conveyance, preventing combined sewer overflows, stormwater management programs and recycled water distribution.

Currently, less than 50 percent of states have submitted information to Congress. Some raised concerns that uncertainty in the economy makes it difficult to estimate how much money an individual infrastructure project could cost, given rising construction and material costs.

But Sandra Allen, director New York state's Clean & Safe Infrastructure Funding Initiative, said, “I think it's better to do the list and caveat it, than to not do the list.”