Biden administration expands effort to help underserved communities get access to sewage infrastructure funds

The Biden administration is expanding efforts to help underserved communities access wastewater infrastructure.

The administration announced Tuesday that it would expand the pilot to 150 additional communities, up from 11 when it started, and help them access federal wastewater funds.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), approximately 2 million people in the United States lack adequate sanitation and drinking water infrastructure.

2017 report A United Nations report on extreme poverty in the United States documented problems including “various homes in rural areas surrounded by cesspools of sewage flowing from broken or non-existent septic tanks” in Alabama. There is.

Radhika Fox, EPA’s water chief, said the expanded program would target low-income people and rural areas.

This will provide technical assistance to help them better assess their needs, plan and apply for funding, she said.

“With the attention that we’re getting and the money that the president has so successfully championed…we’re going to help more than 2 million people who still live without the basics,” Foxx told reporters. , can really make a difference.”