The Clean Water for Delaware Act (HB270) establishes a Clean Water Trust that will provide a dedicated funding stream for water quality and flood abatement projects in Delaware. These funds will enhance and accelerate Delaware’s efforts to clean up its contaminated water resources, ensure all Delawareans have access to safe drinking water, reduce flooding, and protect jobs in agriculture and tourism.
The Clean Water Trust would be supported by dedicating several already-existing funding sources and a proposed new dedicated Clean Water Surcharge. For the Clean Water Surcharge, individuals would pay around $40 per year while business license applicants would pay $45 per application. These funds would be dedicated specifically for water quality and flood abatement projects.
Companion legislation creating a constitutionally-protected “lock box” for the Clean Water Trust is being introduced to provide permanent protection against the diversion of clean water funds.
Total revenues from the surcharge are estimated to be approximately $20 million annually. The dedicated Clean Water Surcharge could also leverage as much as $50 million in total financing annually for clean water investments and support more than 800 direct and indirect jobs per year.
The Clean Water for Delaware Act is a common-sense solution to a generations-old problem. If we do not dedicate funding for clean water and flood abatement now, we will only be leaving our children and grandchildren with an even larger, and more expensive, problem.
The time to support clean water funding is now!