Please join CWEST for a seminar by Dr. Martin Doyle on Wednesday, March 14th, 11am-12pm in SEEC’s Sievers Room S228.
Dr. Doyle is director of the Water Policy Program at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions and a professor of river science and policy at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. His research interfaces science, economics and policy of river management and restoration. He has a background in hydraulics and sediment transport in rivers, and his research has expanded to range from aging infrastructure and dam removal to emerging environmental markets and impact investing in water.
His talk is titled Water infrastructure finance: What water scientists of the 21st century should know about federal budgeting practices and tax policy. His abstract is below.
Water infrastructure throughout the U.S. was funded in the early and mid-20th century through federal grants or federally subsidized financing, from Bureau of Reclamation irrigation infrastructure to Clean Water Act funded sewage treatment plants. Over the past forty years, federal financing has been less forthcoming, which is commensurate with an increase in the need for rehabilitation and replacement of water infrastructure. There are a number of federal initiatives for alternative forms of finance, including a growing interest in public-private partnerships, federal loan guarantees, and privatization. However, there are subtle long-standing federal budget practices which undermine the feasibility of many proposed approaches. In addition, the recent tax reform legislation and the recently released White House infrastructure proposal shift infrastructure finance in critical ways, and still-evolving ways. Water in the US is largely managed and affected by infrastructure. The future of water infrastructure in the United States, and particularly the western U.S., will inevitably be one of decreasing federal funding and financing. This has critical implications for how water is managed in the US.
This CWEST Seminars is held in conjunction with the Hydrology and Water Resources seminar series. Refreshments will be served at 10:45am.