June 11, 2014 | By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

Yesterday, June 10, 2014, President Obama signed into law a $12.3 billion water resources bill that will improve U.S. infrastructure, contribute to economic growth and bolster international trade.

Volunteer Park Reservoir in Seattle, Washington. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014 (WRRDA) reforms how the federal government funds and selects critical water infrastructure projects throughout the nation, and streamlines the environmental review and permitting process to decrease wait times when undertaking water infrastructure construction projects.

"This bill will advance the modernization of America's waterways and ports -- critical corridors of commerce that enable the efficient transport of American-produced commodities, including West Virginia coal," said Committee Ranking Member Nick J. Rahall, II (D-WV) who was partially responsible for pushing WRRDA to the House.

Ultimately, the House voted 412-4 and the Senate voted 91-7 to approve the legislation and send it to the White House for President Obama's signature.

In addition to deauthorizing $18 billion in inactive projects that were authorized prior to WRDA 2007 -- offsetting authorizations with deauthorizations -- the act sets hard deadlines on the time and cost of studies; consolidates or eliminates duplicative or unnecessary studies and requires concurrent reviews; and streamlines environmental reviews.

Further, the legislation creates a transparent process for future bills to review and prioritize water resources development activities, as well as innovative methods to invest in and finance water resources infrastructure and municipal drinking water and wastewater needs.

Finally, the bill improves the Army Corps of Engineers' responses to extreme weather events by authorizing priority water resources infrastructure improvements by improving navigation and commerce, and addressing flood risk management, hurricane and storm damage risk reduction, and environmental restoration needs.

For more:
- see the report

© 2014 FierceMarkets, a division of Questex Media Group LLC. All rights reserved.

http://www.fierceenergy.com/story/wrrda-helps-water-infrastructure-and-coal-industry/2014-06-11