COVID-19’s economic fallout is straining communities’ ability to protect their water.
It’s exacerbating historic, systemic inequities in Texas related to access to clean water, flood protection, and sewage service. Communities of color and under-resourced rural areas are particularly at risk.
The American Rescue Plan Act provides funds specifically to help communities recover from problems like this, in fact, it explicitly authorizes water infrastructure projects. Despite this, the allocations proposed so far in the Texas Legislature do not include a single cent towards water.
On Thursday, Oct 7, the National Wildlife Federation’s Amanda Fuller spoke to members of the Texas House of Representatives about the need to rescue our fragile water infrastructure.
Why water? Why Texas? See texaslivingwaters.org/arpa.
- KERA: North Texas cities are losing billions of gallons of water to old infrastructure - October 4, 2023
- Texas Tribune: “Ike Dike” coastal barrier project could cost $57 billion with inflation, Army Corps says - September 29, 2023
- Texas Observer: Lessons for the future of Texas water from the Medina and San Antonio rivers - August 15, 2023