Each year, the Water Utility Council hosts more than 140 members, or “delegates,” from all 50 states for AWWA's flagship advocacy event, the Water Matters! Fly-In. The delegates spend two days on Capitol Hill meeting with their congressional representatives about issues important to the water sector that are actively being debated in Congress.

The Fly-In plays a major role in AWWA's overall advocacy strategy, and there's a reason we place so much emphasis on it every year. Members of Congress hear all day long about the potential nationwide impacts of policies, but local perspectives from constituents about the impacts in their home districts or states are more likely to persuade them to act. These visits also give us great insight into how various congressional offices are thinking about water issues and provide an opportunity for further meetings or follow-up.

On April 9–10 this year, delegates will be discussing programs and policies affecting every water system and every ratepayer in the country. Though our advocacy issues have not yet been finalized, they may include some combination of the following concerns.

Congress must ensure that polluters—not water systems and the communities they serve—pay to clean up per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination in the environment. As the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) moves closer to a hazardous substance designation for two PFAS—perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid—it's critical that every member of Congress understand the potential unintended consequences.

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) is intended to hold polluters financially responsible for the cleanup of sites contaminated with hazardous substances. But without explicit liability protections, a water system that removes PFAS from drinking water and disposes of the residuals at a landfill could be treated as a polluter under the law and forced to pay for future cleanup of the site.

This potential liability creates an undue burden for water systems and their ratepayers, who may be forced to foot the bill twice—once for installing the treatment technology and filtering out the PFAS and again for cleaning up a Superfund site. Congress should ensure chemical companies and other polluters can’t shift the cost of their contamination onto local communities.

Congress should establish a co-regulatory model for cybersecurity in the water sector. Water systems provide a fundamental service and play a critical role in protecting public health. In fact, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency considers the supply of clean water to be a “National Critical Function” that if disrupted could have national security implications.

AWWA is advocating for a collaborative approach that uses water sector expertise to set minimum cybersecurity standards and conduct third-party audits, with EPA oversight and enforcement. This approach would consider the diversity of system size and complexity, and standards would be risk- and performance-based.

Congress must fully fund the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) and stop the practice of diverting funds from the state revolving funds (SRFs) to pay for congressional earmarks. In its latest Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment, EPA estimates drinking water systems need $625 billion over the next 20 years for infrastructure improvement and maintenance. In 2012, AWWA put the number at $1 trillion. Congress has not raised annual DWSRF funding levels since fiscal year (FY) 2017.

Additionally, in 2022, Congress began dipping into the SRFs to pay for congressionally directed spending, or earmarks. Over a two-year period, 42% of SRF funds were diverted toward earmarks. While an infusion of funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides a temporary reprieve, many states will face unprecedented cuts when those funds run out in FY 2026 unless Congress changes course.

Congress must authorize a permanent program to assist low-income water customers. In 2021, Congress created the Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program, which provided $1.1 billion to help more than one million households pay their water bills. This program was a temporary measure intended to blunt the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Congress should authorize a permanent program to help people maintain affordable access to water, just as they have done for energy, food, and housing.

每年，水务委员会都会接待来自全美 50 个州的 140 多名成员或“代表”，参加 AWWA 的旗舰宣传活动“水很重要！”飞入。代表们花了两天时间在国会山与国会代表会面，讨论国会正在积极辩论的对水行业重要的问题。

Fly-In 在 AWWA 的整体宣传策略中发挥着重要作用，这也是我们每年如此重视它的原因。国会议员整天都在听到有关政策在全国范围内的潜在影响，但选民对其所在地区或州的影响的当地观点更有可能说服他们采取行动。这些访问还让我们深入了解国会各个办公室如何思考水问题，并为进一步的会议或后续行动提供机会。

今年 4 月 9 日至 10 日，代表们将讨论影响该国每个供水系统和每个纳税人的计划和政策。尽管我们的倡导问题尚未最终确定，但它们可能包括以下问题的某些组合。

国会必须确保污染者——而不是供水系统及其所服务的社区——支付费用来清理环境中的全氟烷基物质和多氟烷基物质（PFAS）污染。随着美国环境保护署 (EPA) 接近将两种 PFAS（全氟辛酸和全氟辛烷磺酸）指定为危险物质，每位国会议员都必须了解潜在的意外后果，这一点至关重要。

《综合环境响应、补偿和责任法案》(CERCLA) 旨在让污染者承担清理受有害物质污染的场地的经济责任。但如果没有明确的责任保护，从饮用水中去除 PFAS 并将残留物处理到垃圾填埋场的供水系统可能会被法律视为污染者，并被迫支付未来清理场地的费用。

这种潜在的责任给供水系统及其纳税人造成了不应有的负担，他们可能被迫两次买单——一次是为了安装处理技术并过滤掉 PFAS，另一次是为了清理超级基金场地。国会应确保化工公司和其他污染者不能将污染成本转嫁给当地社区。

国会应建立水务部门网络安全的共同监管模式。供水系统提供基本服务，并在保护公众健康方面发挥关键作用。事实上，网络安全和基础设施安全局认为清洁水的供应是一项“国家关键功能”，如果中断可能会对国家安全产生影响。

AWWA 提倡采用协作方法，利用水务部门的专业知识来制定最低网络安全标准并进行第三方审计，并由 EPA 监督和执行。这种方法将考虑系统规模和复杂性的多样性，并且标准将基于风险和性能。

国会必须为饮用水州循环基金（DWSRF）提供全额资金，并停止从州循环基金（SRF）中挪用资金来支付国会专项资金的做法。在最新的饮用水基础设施需求调查和评估中，EPA 估计未来 20 年饮用水系统需要 6250 亿美元用于基础设施的改善和维护。 2012 年，AWWA 将这一数字定为 1 万亿美元。自 2017 财年 (FY) 以来，国会尚未提高年度 DWSRF 资助水平。

此外，2022 年，国会开始动用 SRF 来支付国会指导的支出或专项资金。两年期间，42% 的 SRF 资金被转用于专项用途。虽然两党基础设施​​法的资金注入提供了暂时的缓解，但除非国会改变方针，否则当这些资金在 2026 财年用完时，许多州将面临前所未有的削减。

国会必须批准一项永久性计划来帮助低收入用水客户。 2021年，国会制定了低收入家庭水援助计划，提供11亿美元帮助超过100万家庭支付水费。该计划是一项临时措施，旨在减轻 COVID-19 大流行的经济影响。国会应授权一项永久性计划，帮助人们维持负担得起的水供应，就像他们在能源、食品和住房方面所做的那样。