Responding to Maryland’s water woes, the Environmental Protection Agency will make $144 million in funds from President Biden’s infrastructure bill available to the state for improvements to drinking water systems and wastewater management.
The funding includes $76 million being made available now to the Maryland Department of the Environment for distribution to cities and other local municipalities after an outbreak of E. coli contamination earlier this month in Baltimore’s drinking water and what state environmental regulators have called catastrophic failures at the city’s two wastewater treatment plants.
Another $68 million from the infrastructure bill will be awarded in fiscal 2023, which begins Oct. 1, for replacing lead water lines and treating so-called emerging contaminants in wastewater and stormwater. Those contaminants include per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, the “forever chemicals” known as PFAS, as well as a range of pharmaceuticals and hormones found in human effluent, agricultural products and personal care and household cleaning products, all of which can have a devastating impact on fish and other aquatic species.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Aman Azhar over at The Baltimore Banner
