A $1.9 trillion COVID-19 economic stimulus plan outlined by President Joe Biden proposes billions of dollars to help low-income families pay water and other utility bills while also offering additional funds to supplement the budgets of state and local governments. Called the American Rescue Plan, the President-elect’s proposal includesRead More

The Water Sector Coordinating Council (WSCC) released a December 14 memo encouraging water and wastewater utilities to contact their state and local public health agencies about prioritization of their staff for COVID-19 vaccinations. The WSCC is is a policy, strategy and coordination mechanism for the U.S. Water andRead More

Xylem has donated and delivered more than 300,000 pieces of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to frontline workers in 2020, working alongside its partners. The personal protective equipment went to healthcare facilities and to water utility operators working to keep essential services flowing in local communities.Read More

Friday evening, Congress released its long-awaited conferenced Water Resources and Development Act (WRDA). Over the past several cycles, this bill has become the vehicle of choice for authorizing essential funding for clean and drinking water infrastructure. While both the House and Senate Committee versions ofRead More

The Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP) announced in July it was sourcing and donating 40,000 N95 masks to frontline water operators in partnership with Xylem Watermark and 120Water. In August, Xylem donated an additional 65,000 which RCAP was able to coordinate with 120Water to distributeRead More

In a letter to President-elect Joe Biden last week, the American Water Works Association (AWWA) urged the incoming administration to prioritize COVID-19 relief for water utilities and investment for the overall water infrastructure sector. The letter, authored by association president Melissa Elliott, cites AWWA research thatRead More

Recent trial programs looking at the efficacy of testing wastewater to detect COVID-19 outbreaks have yielded important insights about how this method of testing can be used to improve public health, including providing an early indicator of infection that can be used to trigger advisoriesRead More

120Water, a digital water platform for modern sample management and compliance, announced a new program that can provide early detection of COVID-19 outbreaks by testing wastewater for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA that is shed by infected persons. According to current research, the testing ofRead More

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a pared-down version of the HEROES Act, the chamber’s previous COVID-19 relief package. The legislation contains $1.5 billion in aid to water and sewer utilities to help low-income ratepayers during the pandemic. The new version of the HEROES billRead More

By Shannon C. Markham “These are truly unprecedented times.” If you have not heard this phrase 100 times in the last few months then you must have recently awoken from a lengthy slumber. The impact of the COVID-19 crisis has been widespread and thorough, affecting countlessRead More