ECOS Water Committee Vice Chair Julie Moore of Vermont testified before the U.S. House Committee on Energy & Commerce, Subcommittee on Environment, at a hearing entitled, “Reliable Water in the Digital Age: Examining Legislation to Strengthen Drinking Water Systems and Protect Ratepayers.” The hearing reviewed the Safe Drinking Water Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2026 and the Water Cost Accountability Act of 2026, which address the reauthorization of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) and other programs, and proposes requiring data centers to pay for the incremental costs they would present to local water systems.
Moore testified on behalf of both the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources and ECOS, and underscored ECOS messages on the need for robust funding levels, the importance of the state setasides and the revolving nature of the SRFs, the impacts of the Infrastructure Investment Funding and Jobs Act (IIJA) funding cliff and the effect of earmarks on SRFs, and the overall importance of the states’ infrastructure programs for water affordability. Moore also highlighted the importance of increased funding and training for reducing cybersecurity vulnerabilities and articulated support for the principle of data centers paying the full cost of their impacts to public water systems, and also understanding their impacts to source waters and other waters outside of public water systems.
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