“State and local governments could be on the hook for more than $1.2 trillion to maintain and improve the country’s drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure,” write Mollie Mills and Christine Pulfrey, officers with the Pew Charitable Trusts state fiscal policy project, in a late summer report.

Although estimated numbers nationwide are staggering, there’s a dearth of data needed to tackle the problem. As a result, the paper notes, “policymakers often lack a complete understanding of their long-term drinking water and wastewater needs.”

In fact, even though states annually file with the federal government to receive cash from its Drinking Water State Revolving Funds, “they typically include only “fully scoped” projects that are ready to be funded and completed.” As a result, “actual state funding needs are probably much higher due to data and reporting challenges.”

In its research, Pew reviewed more than 30 state water plans and related documents and discovered some particularly alarming news. For example, “The 2020 Minnesota State Water Plan highlights data in the “Minnesota Wastewater Infrastructure System Needs and Costs” report, which is updated every two years—most recently in 2024—and can offer a glimpse of need and cost trends that could inform the state’s 2030 water plan. . .In the 2024 report, the state found that communities will need nearly $6.5 billion for wastewater infrastructure projects to be completed over the next 20 years, with aging infrastructure cited as a significant growing expense.”

Similarly, “North Dakota’s 2021 Water Development Plan acknowledges the state’s aging infrastructure, and its need for long-term water solutions, by estimating short-term, 10-year, and 50-year funding needs. The plan notes that the State Water Commission has worked with project sponsors to estimate current project needs, which as of 2021 total $6.1 billion over the next 10 years.”

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