President Donald Trump’s proposed budget would cut more than half of the Environmental Protection Agency’s funding. Among other things, it would nearly eliminate federal dollars to help states upgrade water infrastructure.
That could make it even harder to provide safe drinking water and sanitary sewers to Indiana’s rural communities.
Zealan Hoover used to work as a senior advisor to the previous EPA administrator under former President Joe Biden. He said small utilities will face a tough choice — either raise water bills or delay upgrades even longer, which could lead to unhealthy drinking water.
“It’s really a lose-lose-lose. This is a program that helps save far more money than it costs," Hoover said.
Indiana could also choose to raise taxes to pay for the upgrades.
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Lorean Johnston is with the Alliance of Indiana Rural Water. He said further delaying upgrades in towns like Winslow in Pike County could lead to public health concerns.
“When it rains and they have periods of flooding, it inundates the entire wastewater system and leads to compliance issues, leads to the services not being able to function properly," Johnston said.
That can sometimes mean sewage where it shouldn’t be.
The White House budget proposal said states should fund their own water infrastructure projects. Johnston said these are essential services and asking rural Hoosiers to pay for such expensive costs up front is unfair.
Rebecca is our energy and environment reporter. Contact her at rthiele@iu.edu or follow her on Twitter at @beckythiele .
