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

The Biden administration is expanding its efforts to help underserved communities get access to sewage infrastructure.

The administration said Tuesday it would expand a pilot initiative to 150 additional communities, up from 11 at its start, to help them get access to federal wastewater funds. 

About 2 million people in the U.S. don’t have adequate wastewater and drinking water infrastructure, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

A 2017 report from the United Nations on extreme poverty in the U.S. documented issues including “various houses in rural areas that were surrounded by cesspools of sewage that flowed out of broken or non-existent septic systems” in Alabama. 

Radhika Fox, the EPA’s top water official, said the expanded program would be geared toward low-income and rural communities. 

It provides them with technical assistance so that they can better assess their needs, create plans and apply for funding, she said.

“With focused attention, with the funding that the President has so successfully championed…we really can make a difference for those over two million people again are still living without the basics,” Fox told reporters.