Bush Budget for Water Tops $2.5B
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Feb. 4 that President Bush's Fiscal Year 2009 budget for the National Water Program was over $ 2.5 billion, or 35 percent of the agency's overall budget. The agency said this funding level will allow EPA, along with state, tribal and local partners, to make continued progress in ensuring America's waters are clean, safe and secure.
This budget will help EPA to:
• restore and maintain waters across the country through state and tribal Clean Water Act programs,
• continue to improve the health of the country's major coastal ecosystems, and achieve a net increase of wetlands,
• increase the populations served by systems providing water that complies with drinking water standards, and
• implement a total of five water security infrastructure pilots.
For more information on the budget request, visit http://www.epa.gov/ocfo/budget/index.htm.