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By Brian Smith - August 24, 2021
Our nation has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to help secure a cleaner, more sustainable and equitable future, and we must seize the moment. The Senate’s recently passed infrastructure bill can go a long way in helping us achieve this goal.
The benefits of the infrastructure bill would not be felt in some far-off land, but rather, these benefits will serve as a boon to Western New York’s environment and economy. The funding would finally allow us to address environmental hazards that have lingered in our communities for decades, while paving the way for job creation and economic development.
At the top of the list is a monumental $1 billion in additional funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. The GLRI has been a resounding success over the past decade, supporting the cleanup of the Buffalo River and providing the Buffalo economy with a 4-1 return on investment.
In 1987, Niagara River was listed as a toxic “Area of Concern” and remains on the list to this day. We can do better. Additional GLRI funding will allow us to have similar success with the cleanup of this river and many others.
The bill also provides $55 billion for clean water infrastructure, including $15 billion for lead service line replacement. There are approximately 100 miles of lead pipes in Buffalo that provide drinking water to 60% of the homes in the city. There is no safe level of exposure to lead in drinking water, especially for our children. It is past time to replace every lead pipe in the nation.
Another critical item in the bill is $4.7 billion to plug and remediate all the documented orphan oil and gas wells across the country. New York has documented more than 2,400 of these abandoned wells, located primarily in Western New York and the Southern Tier. However, the state estimates that there may be more than 34,000.
For generations, these wells have released methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change, as wells as toxic chemicals that pollute local groundwater. Plugging these wells and remediating the surrounding land will clean up a long legacy of contamination while creating thousands of jobs in communities hit hard by the demise of the oil and gas industry.
As majority leader, Sen. Charles Schumer deserves a great deal of credit for negotiating a bill that provides immense benefit to Western New York. We should celebrate this important step forward but we must recognize there is more work to do. It is imperative that the U.S. House follow suit with passage of the infrastructure bill.
In some cases, the infrastructure bill may not go far enough to meet the challenges we face, particularly to battle climate change. A complementary and robust funding bill can and should help fill those voids where needed.
Brian Smith is associate executive director for Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Buffalo.