Milford Daily News: Stevens: Water infrastructure and the stimulus package (MA)

From Milford Daily News: 

The federal government and the Commonwealth must address serious water resources infrastructure issues; the federal stimulus package provides the Commonwealth a time-critical opportunity to act.  In almost every area of the country, especially in older cities and towns, the water resources infrastructure shows signs of distress. Funding that might otherwise be spent on operations and maintenance is being diverted to comply with increasingly stringent environmental regulations dictated by federal and state agencies. In addition, meeting community needs and demands for other basic services creates increased competition for scarce local dollars. The resulting deferred maintenance leads to infrastructure failures that put public health at risk, jeopardize environmental progress made since the passage of the Clean Water Act, and result in greater long term costs for communities and homeowners.  The lack of adequate infrastructure also exposes communities to business and job losses through failure to provide the necessary and cost effective services which promote economic development. This is true not only for roadways and bridges, but also for sanitary sewage, drinking water and stormwater systems.