[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



 CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE PREPAREDNESS AND RESILIENCE: A FOCUS ON WATER

=======================================================================


                                HEARING

                               before the

                     COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                               __________

                           SEPTEMBER 21, 2022

                               __________

                           Serial No. 117-70

                               __________

       Printed for the use of the Committee on Homeland Security
                                     



               [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                                     


        Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov

                               __________


                 U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE

50-234 PDF                WASHINGTON : 2023













                     COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY

               Bennie G. Thompson, Mississippi, Chairman

Sheila Jackson Lee, Texas            John Katko, New York
James R. Langevin, Rhode Island      Michael T. McCaul, Texas
Donald M. Payne, Jr., New Jersey     Clay Higgins, Louisiana
J. Luis Correa, California           Michael Guest, Mississippi
Elissa Slotkin, Michigan             Dan Bishop, North Carolina
Emanuel Cleaver, Missouri            Jefferson Van Drew, New Jersey
Al Green, Texas                      Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Iowa
Yvette D. Clarke, New York           Diana Harshbarger, Tennessee
Eric Swalwell, California            Andrew S. Clyde, Georgia
Dina Titus, Nevada                   Carlos A. Gimenez, Florida
Bonnie Watson Coleman, New Jersey    Jake LaTurner, Kansas
Kathleen M. Rice, New York           Peter Meijer, Michigan
Val Butler Demings, Florida          Kat Cammack, Florida
Nanette Diaz Barragan, California    August Pfluger, Texas
Josh Gottheimer, New Jersey          Andrew R. Garbarino, New York
Elaine G. Luria, Virginia            Mayra Flores, Texas
Tom Malinowski, New Jersey
Ritchie Torres, New York, Vice 
    Chairman

                       Hope Goins, Staff Director
                 Daniel Kroese, Minority Staff Director
                          Natalie Nixon, Clerk








                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page

                               Statements

The Honorable Bennie G. Thompson, a Representative in Congress 
  From the State of Mississippi, and Chairman, Committee on 
  Homeland Security:
  Oral Statement.................................................     1
  Prepared Statement.............................................     2
The Honorable John Katko, a Representative in Congress From the 
  State of New York, and Ranking Member, Committee on Homeland 
  Security:
  Oral Statement.................................................     3
  Prepared Statement.............................................     5

                               Witnesses

Mr. W. Craig Fugate, Private Citizen, Former Administrator, 
  Federal Emergency Management Agency:
  Oral Statement.................................................     6
  Prepared Statement.............................................     8
Mr. David L. Gadis, CEO and General Manager, District of Columbia 
  Water and Sewer Authority:
  Oral Statement.................................................     9
  Prepared Statement.............................................    11
Ms. Abre' Conner, Director, Center for Environmental and Climate 
  Justice, NAACP:
  Oral Statement.................................................    12
  Prepared Statement.............................................    14
Mr. John O'Connell, III, Senior Vice President, National Rural 
  Water Association:
  Oral Statement.................................................    20
  Prepared Statement.............................................    22

                                Appendix

Question From Honorable Dina Titus for W. Craig Fugate...........    51
Question From Honorable Nanette Barragan for David L. Gadis......    51
Question From Honorable Dina Titus for David L. Gadis............    52
Questions From Honorable Dina Titus for Abre' Conner.............    53







 
 CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE PREPAREDNESS AND RESILIENCE: A FOCUS ON WATER

                              ----------                              


                     Wednesday, September 21, 2022

                     U.S. House of Representatives,
                            Committee on Homeland Security,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:06 a.m., in 
room 310, Cannon House Office Building, Hon. Bennie G. Thompson 
[Chairman of the committee] presiding.
    Present: Representatives Thompson, Jackson Lee, Langevin, 
Payne, Slotkin, Cleaver, Clarke, Watson Coleman, Demings, 
Barragan, Gottheimer, Katko, Higgins, Guest, Miller-Meeks, 
Harshbarger, Gimenez, LaTurner, Meijer, Cammack, Pfluger, and 
Flores.
    Chairman Thompson. The Committee on Homeland Security will 
be in order.
    Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare the 
committee in recess at any point.
    Good morning. I would like to begin by saying that my 
thoughts are with those living in Alaska, Puerto Rico, 
California, and Oregon who are experiencing disasters. Over the 
weekend, Alaskans felt the impact of a typhoon, while Puerto 
Rico was hit with Hurricane Fiona, nearly 5 years to the day 
since Hurricane Maria. Meanwhile, Americans in the West are 
dealing with wildfires and record-breaking temperatures. As the 
Nation continues to cope with simultaneous natural disasters, 
and as we recognize National Preparedness Month this month, 
today's hearing on preparedness and resilience is timely.
    The preparedness and resilience of critical infrastructure, 
and particularly water infrastructure, hits close to home. My 
community of Jackson, Mississippi, suffered serious flooding 
last month, which contributed to the failure of a water pumping 
station and left more than 100,000 of my constituents without 
clean water or appropriately managed wastewater. Residents 
could not use the water coming out of their faucets to brush 
their teeth, bathe, or wash the dishes. The lack of water led 
to school and business closures, and tens of millions of 
gallons of untreated wastewater flowed into Jackson-area 
waterways. The State has recently lifted the boil water 
advisory, but sporadic boil water notices continue in the city.
    This crisis is not over and will not be over until we fix 
the underlying problems that caused it, starting with a lack of 
investment in critical infrastructure, such as our water 
systems. Jackson is not alone. Many areas around the country 
have suffered from disinvestment and struggle with aging 
infrastructure, particularly in communities of color and low-
income areas. In fact, of the water systems that consistently 
violate Federal drinking water standards, 40 percent of them 
serve communities of color. That is not a coincidence. Studies 
show that Black and Brown communities are more likely to bear 
the brunt of natural disasters. To make matters worse, 
infrastructure investments and disaster assistance are often 
directed to areas that already have more resources rather than 
those that desperately need it. I have seen this time and time 
again as these dollars are steered away from communities like 
those I represent.
    Clearly, FEMA and its partners must do a better job of 
ensuring that States provide Federal funding to those 
communities most in need. For years, I have been a champion of 
equity. This Congress I was proud to see my legislation, the 
FEMA Equity Act, pass the House as part of the National Defense 
Authorization Act. I intend for this legislation to be part of 
a concerted effort to address the lack of equity in 
infrastructure investment, disaster assistance funding, and 
other Federal programs. I applaud the Biden administration's 
commitment to that work, and I will do everything in my power 
to ensure we make real progress for Jackson and communities 
like mine across the United States.
    To that end, I am looking forward to having a fruitful 
discussion today about how we can invest in infrastructure, 
improve preparedness, and bolster resilience so that all 
communities have the tools they need to weather the storms we 
face.
    With that, I look forward to the discussion today and I 
thank the witnesses for their participation.
    [The statement of Chairman Thompson follows:]
                Statement of Chairman Bennie G. Thompson
                           September 21, 2022
    I would like to begin by saying that my thoughts are with those in 
Alaska, Puerto Rico, California, and Oregon who are experiencing 
disasters. Over the weekend, Alaskans felt the impact of a typhoon, 
while Puerto Rico was hit with Hurricane Fiona, nearly 5 years to the 
day since Hurricane Maria. Meanwhile, Americans in the West are dealing 
with wildfires and record-breaking temperatures.
    As the Nation continues to cope with simultaneous natural 
disasters, and as we recognize National Preparedness Month this month, 
today's hearing on preparedness and resilience is timely. The 
preparedness and resilience of critical infrastructure, and 
particularly water infrastructure, hits close to home.
    My community of Jackson, Mississippi, suffered serious flooding 
last month, which contributed to the failure of a water pumping station 
and left more than 100,000 of my constituents without clean water or 
appropriately managed wastewater. Residents could not use the water 
coming out of their faucets to brush their teeth, bathe, or wash the 
dishes. The lack of water led to school and business closures, and tens 
of millions of gallons of untreated wastewater flowed into Jackson-area 
waterways. The State has recently lifted the boil water advisory, but 
sporadic boil water notices continue in the city. This crisis is not 
over--and will not be over until we fix the underlying problems that 
caused it, starting with a lack of investment in critical 
infrastructure, such as our water systems.
    Jackson is not alone--many areas around the country have suffered 
from disinvestment and struggle with aging infrastructure, particularly 
in communities of color and low-income areas. In fact, of the water 
systems that consistently violate Federal drinking water standards, 40 
percent of them serve communities of color. That is not a coincidence. 
Studies show that Black and Brown communities are more likely to bear 
the brunt of natural disasters.
    To make matters worse, infrastructure investments and disaster 
assistance are often directed to areas that already have more resources 
rather than those that desperately need it. I have seen this time and 
time again as these dollars are steered away from communities like 
those I represent. Clearly, FEMA and its partners must do a better job 
of ensuring States provide Federal funding to those communities most in 
need.
    For years, I have been a champion of equity--this Congress I was 
proud to see my legislation, the FEMA Equity Act, pass the House as 
part of the National Defense Authorization Act. I intend for this 
legislation to be part of a concerted effort to address the lack of 
equity in infrastructure investment, disaster assistance funding, and 
other Federal programs. I applaud the Biden administration's commitment 
to that work, and I will do everything in my power to ensure we make 
real progress for Jackson and communities like mine across the United 
States.
    To that end, I am looking forward to having a fruitful discussion 
today about how we can invest in infrastructure, improve preparedness, 
and bolster resilience so that all communities have the tools they need 
to weather the storms we face.

    Chairman Thompson. The Chair recognizes the Ranking Member 
of the full committee, the gentleman from New York, Mr. Katko, 
for an opening statement.
    Mr. Katko. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I echo your 
sentiments and you will hear those are my words in a moment.
    Before I begin, I would like to say that I am encouraged, 
Mr. Chairman, that the water services have been restored in 
Jackson, Mississippi. I realize there is still a lot more work 
to be done. It is my sincere hope that the situation continues 
to move in the right direction. It is my understanding that 
FEMA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency are currently working with 
Mississippi Emergency Management Agency and the city of Jackson 
to identify longer-term solutions to improve the water 
infrastructure in Jackson. Jackson is emblematic of a lot of 
our communities Nation-wide--Flint, Michigan, for example, and 
many others.
    I am heartened by the fact that we have a massive 
infrastructure bill that we have passed that hopefully will 
provide a lot more dollars to these jurisdictions. For the life 
of me, I do not understand how not everyone supported that 
infrastructure bill. It is times like this when you realize how 
important it really is.
    I hope that the process for Jackson moves quickly because 
access to clean water is critical to the overall health and 
economic security of a community.
    I would also like to express my concern for the on-going 
situation in Puerto Rico. Hurricane Fiona has caused 
catastrophic flooding and island-wide blackouts. This most 
recent hurricane comes while Puerto Rico is still recovering 
from Hurricanes Irma and Maria, which devastated the island 5 
years ago. I lived in Puerto Rico as a prosecutor in the mid-
90's and I was struck by how dilapidated their infrastructure 
was then. From what I can see it has gotten nothing but worse 
and we need to help them as well.
    But this is why I want to thank the Chairman for holding 
this very important hearing on the cyber and fiscal threats 
facing our Nation's critical infrastructure, with a particular 
focus on water infrastructure. As we have seen in recent years, 
America's aging infrastructure systems are increasingly 
susceptible to ransomware and cyber attacks, and our water 
systems are no exception.
    In February 2021 a hacker remotely altered the chemicals in 
a water treatment system in Oldsmar, Florida. If a plant 
operator hadn't noticed the attack, it is estimated that a city 
of about 15,000 people would have been exposed to highly 
poisonous levels of chemicals in their water. This incident 
demonstrated first-hand the real-world and devastating 
consequences that a cyber attack can have on our systems. 
Unfortunately, the attack in Florida was not an anomaly.
    For this reason, I introduce the Department of Homeland 
Security Industrial Control System Enhancement Act of 2021. My 
legislation, which was co-sponsored by the Chairman, which I 
appreciate, was solidified as Cybersecurity and Infrastructure 
Security Agency's, or CISA's, lead role in protecting our 
Nation's critical infrastructure, particularly industrial 
control systems from cyber threats.
    The committee's cyber subcommittee also just held the 
hearing on industrial control systems cybersecurity, which 
further exemplifies how Congress is taking this issue very 
seriously.
    In addition to being susceptible to cyber attacks, aging 
water infrastructure also poses a growing threat to economic 
growth, public health, and our environment. In central New 
York, we are no strangers to the challenges caused by water 
infrastructure. In the Finger Lakes Region harmful algal blooms 
present severe health risks to humans and aquatic life, while 
sustained high-water levels continue to threaten home and 
businesses in communities along Lake Ontario.
    That is why during my time in Congress I have led efforts 
to modernize our Nation's water systems and have worked hard to 
provide safe, clean, and reliable drinking water to all of my 
constituents. Most recently I was proud to introduce the Water 
Infrastructure Modernization Act of 2021. My legislation would 
expand on local efforts to develop and deploy smart water 
technology in central New York. By making this technology more 
wide-spread, we will be taking meaningful steps to improve 
water quality and bolster the reliability and sustainability of 
our water systems.
    In addition to introducing this legislation, I have also 
worked with colleagues from both sides of the aisle to ensure 
robust funding for the primary Federal programs that assist 
State and local governments with water infrastructure needs. 
The Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Funds. Since 
their creation these programs have provided billions in 
interest-free loans and grants to State and local governments 
with water infrastructure needs. For this reason, I was proud 
to support the recent bipartisan infrastructure bill, as I 
mentioned, to bolster these crucial funding streams and to 
maintain this advocacy through the Congressional appropriations 
process.
    As demand for these programs continues to grow, it is 
critical that we keep an eye toward Federal support for the 
security of our water infrastructure assets.
    In conclusion, the water crisis in Jackson comes at a time 
when our country is having a serious conversation about the 
future of our Nation's critical infrastructure systems. While 
the Members of this committee represent a wide range of 
districts, rural, urban, large, and small, we have all been 
impacted in some way by the issue of aging infrastructure. 
Given this fact, I look forward to hearing from all of you 
today about how to increase infrastructure resiliency across 
the country.
    Mr. Chairman, I thank you very much for your indulgence, 
and apologize for being a few minutes late. That is what 
happens when you have a new knee and physical therapy. But I 
apologize.
    But I thank you very much and I yield back the balance of 
my time.
    [The statement of Ranking Member Katko follows:]
                 Statement of Ranking Member John Katko
    Mr. Chairman: Before I begin, I would like to say that I am 
encouraged to hear that water services have been restored in Jackson, 
Mississippi. While I realize there is still a lot more work to be done, 
it is my sincere hope that the situation continues to move in the right 
direction.
    It is my understanding that FEMA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 
(USACE), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are 
currently working with the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency 
(MEMA) and the city of Jackson to identify longer-term solutions to 
improve the water infrastructure in Jackson. I hope that this process 
moves quickly, because access to clean water is critical to the overall 
health and economic security of a community.
    I would also like to express my concern for the on-going situation 
in Puerto Rico. Hurricane Fiona has caused catastrophic flooding and 
island-wide blackouts. This most recent Hurricane comes while Puerto 
Rico is still recovering from Hurricanes Irma and Maria, which 
devastated the island 5 years ago.
    With this in mind, I want to thank the Chairman for holding this 
very important hearing on the cyber and physical threats facing our 
Nation's critical infrastructure, with a particular focus on water 
infrastructure.
    As we have seen in recent years, America's aging infrastructure 
systems are increasingly susceptible to ransomware and cyber attacks. 
And our water systems are no exception.
    In February 2021, a hacker remotely altered the chemicals in a 
water treatment system in Oldsmar, Florida. If a plant operator hadn't 
noticed the attack, it's estimated that a city of about 15,000 people 
would have been exposed to poisonous levels of chemicals in their 
water.
    This incident demonstrated first-hand the devastating, real-world 
consequences that a cyber attack can have. And unfortunately, the 
attack in Florida was not an anomaly.
    For this reason, I introduced the DHS Industrial Control Systems 
Enhancement Act of 2021. My legislation, which was cosponsored by the 
Chairman, would solidify the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security 
Agency's (CISA) lead role in protecting our Nation's critical 
infrastructure, particularly industrial control systems (ICS), from 
cyber threats. The Committee's cyber subcommittee also just held a 
hearing on ICS cybersecurity, which further exemplifies how Congress is 
taking this issue seriously.
    In addition to being susceptible to cyber attacks, aging water 
infrastructure also poses a growing threat to economic growth, public 
health, and our environment.
    In Central New York, we are no strangers to the challenges caused 
by water infrastructure. In the Finger Lakes Region, harmful algal 
blooms present severe health risks to humans and aquatic life. While 
sustained high-water levels continues to threaten homes and businesses 
in communities along Lake Ontario.
    That is why, during my time in Congress I have led efforts to 
modernize our Nation's water systems and have worked hard to provide 
safe, clean, and reliable drinking water to all of my constituents.
    Most recently, I was proud to introduce the Water Infrastructure 
Modernization Act of 2021. My legislation would expand on local efforts 
to develop and deploy smart water technology in Central New York. By 
making this technology more wide-spread, we will be taking meaningful 
steps to improve water quality and bolster the reliability and 
sustainability of our water systems.
    In addition to introducing this legislation, I have also worked 
with colleagues from both sides of the aisle to ensure robust funding 
for the primary Federal programs that assists State and local 
governments with water infrastructure needs--the Drinking Water and the 
Clean Water State Revolving Funds. Since their creation, these programs 
have provided billions in interest-free loans and grants to State and 
local governments with water infrastructure needs. For this reason, I 
was proud to support the recent bipartisan infrastructure bill to 
bolster these crucial funding streams, and to maintain this advocacy 
through the Congressional appropriations process.
    As demand for these programs continues to grow, it is critical that 
we keep an eye toward Federal support for the security of our water 
infrastructure assets.
    In conclusion, the water crisis in Jackson comes at a time when our 
country is having a serious conversation about the future of our 
Nation's critical infrastructure systems.
    While the Members of this committee represent a wide range of 
districts--rural and urban, large, and small--we have all been impacted 
in some way by the issue of aging infrastructure.
    Given this fact, I look forward to hearing from all of our 
witnesses here today about how to increase infrastructure resiliency 
across the country.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman and with that I yield back.

    Chairman Thompson. The gentleman yields back.
    Other Members of the committee are reminded that under the 
committee rules opening statements may be submitted for the 
record.
    Members are also reminded that the committee will operate 
according to the guidelines laid out by the Chairman and 
Ranking Member in our February 3, 2021 colloquy regarding 
remote procedures.
    I welcome our panel of witnesses.
    Our first witness, Mr. Craig Fugate, was administrator of 
the Federal Emergency Management Agency, commonly referred to 
as FEMA, from 2009 until 2017. He led the agency's response to 
multiple record-breaking storms and over 500 Presidentially-
declared major disasters and emergencies. Prior to his service 
at FEMA, Mr. Fugate served as director of the Florida Division 
of Emergency Management.
    Our second witness, Mr. David Gadis, is the CEO and general 
manager of D.C. Water, one of the Nation's largest water 
utilities where he oversees a $1 billion annual budget and 
leads approximately 1,200 employees. Mr. Gadis also serves as 
member of the President's National Infrastructure Advisory 
Committee.
    Our third witness, Ms. Abre' Conner, is the director of the 
environmental and climate justice for the NAACP. In that 
capacity she oversees strategy and collaboration across the 
association to dismantle environmental racism.
    Our final witness, Mr. John O'Connell, is senior vice 
president of the National Rural Water Association. In NRWA he 
helps lead the organization's work to train, support, and 
promote the water and wastewater professionals serving small 
communities across the country, especially like one that I live 
in. We are glad to have you.
    Without objection, the witnesses' full statements will be 
included in the record.
    The Chair asks each witness to summarize his or her 
statement for 5 minutes beginning with Mr. Fugate.

     STATEMENT OF W. CRAIG FUGATE, PRIVATE CITIZEN, FORMER 
       ADMINISTRATOR, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY

    Mr. Fugate. Well, good morning, Mr. Chairman, Ranking 
Member Katko, and other Members of the committee. It is an 
honor to be here.
    What happened in Jackson, Mississippi I think a lot of 
people dismissed as well, that is Jackson, Mississippi, that is 
there, it won't happen to other places. But in my history of 
responding to disasters, I have seen systems come so close that 
much larger systems almost failed. Example, the 2010 record-
setting floods in Nashville impacted both of their water 
treatment plants. One was flooded and shut down, resulting in 
50 percent of the capacity for the Nashville region losing 
potable water. The other facility came within 1 foot of 
failure, and only by heroic sandbagging efforts could they save 
it. It took over 30 days to repair the first facility before 
they could get full water back up to Nashville. As the Ranking 
Member pointed out, this was not only public safety in drinking 
water, it was economic, because it slowed down the recovery 
because they couldn't even bring back their tourism venues 
until they got that plant back on-line. That is not the only 
story.
    Columbia, South Carolina, 2014. Record-setting floods blew 
out the intake canal to the water treatment plan for the city 
of Columbia, South Carolina. This was when Nikki Haley was 
Governor. The National Guard literally was taking helicopters 
flying 3,000-pound sandbags trying to rebuild and fortify that 
intake so they would not lose the water system.
    Then we know about Flint, Michigan. But once again, FEMA 
was asked to come in on an emergency basis when a system failed 
because of extremely high lead levels. And in that response, 
FEMA was engaged in emergency action, including helping 
distribute bottled water, water filters, and other support for 
over 8 months.
    Those are just tips of the iceberg. But the thing that I 
want to focus on is the record-setting flooding. If you look at 
most water systems, those that depend upon surface water were 
built based upon the 100-year flood zone, which is a misnomer. 
There is no such thing as a 100-year flood zone. It comes from 
the National Flood Insurance who rate maps of a special risk 
area. This terminology that we have used is really confusing 
when we say we are looking at 100-year floods or 1 percent 
risk, was based on historical average looking back 100 years. 
But as the Washington Post published a couple of weeks ago, we 
had 5 1,000-year events in 5 weeks. So not only do we have 
aging infrastructure, which EPA estimates about $750 billion 
worth of repairs need to be made. Many of our water treatment 
plants across the Nation are at increasing risk in these 
extreme rainfall flood events because they were built for the 
last 100 years. This comes from the General Accounting Office 
recommendations back to Congress at the request of the Senate 
Committee to make recommendations on how we start building 
climate resilience into our critical infrastructure. What is 
happening in Puerto Rico reinforces that. Merely building back 
what was there, only to be destroyed once again, is not a good 
investment of my tax dollars, sir. As a Federal taxpayer, I 
would be willing to pay a little bit more on the front end so 
we are not coming back time and time again with these types of 
failures.
    So it is a combination of problems that is both an aging 
infrastructure--in many cases, smaller communities, communities 
of color, rural communities, lack of resources to maintain the 
systems, increased risk of natural hazards--mainly flooding, 
but drought is also driving a lot of these impacts, and a 
tendency to want to get back in there quickly, make repairs, 
and move on without really understanding that building for 
climate resilience means you have got to build for the future, 
not for the past.
    With that, I will stand by for questions, Mr. Chairman.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Fugate follows:]
                 Prepared Statement of W. Craig Fugate
                     Wednesday, September 21, 2022
    Chairman Thompson, Ranking Member Katko, and Members of the 
committee, thank you for inviting me to testify today.
    With the recent reports from the Jackson, Mississippi on their 
drinking water system, both flooding and preexisting conditions 
resulted in the total failure of the system. We are seeing more record-
setting floods impact aging drinking water infrastructure across the 
Nation. What happened in Jackson is not an exception, but an indicator 
for future failures.
    My questions are, how many community drinking water systems are at 
risk of similar failure? And, with a marked increase in extreme flood 
events, how many drinking water systems that were build to standards 
based on past flood risk history will fail in the next record-setting 
flood?
                               background
    Department of Homeland Security has established Water and 
Wastewater systems as National Critical Functions (NCF's). Per DHS, 
``Safe drinking water is central to the life of an individual and of 
society, a drinking water contamination incident or the failure of 
drinking water services would have far-reaching public health, 
economic, environmental, and psychological impacts across the Nation. 
Other critical services such as fire protection, health care, and 
heating and cooling processes would also be disrupted by the 
interruption or cessation of drinking water service, resulting in 
significant consequences to the national or regional economies''\1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ DHS, The 2015 Water and Wastewater Sector-Specific Plan.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ``Every day, more than 150,000 public water systems provide 
drinking water to millions of Americans and U.S. wastewater treatment 
facilities process approximately 34 billion gallons of wastewater. 
Considered National Critical Functions (NCFs), both the ability to 
`supply water' and `manage wastewater' are functions of government and 
the private sector so vital to the U.S. that their disruption, 
corruption, or dysfunction would have a debilitating effect on 
security, national economic security, national public health or safety, 
or any combination thereof''.\2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\ https://www.cisa.gov/ncf-water.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    During my time as FEMA Administrator (2009-2017), I oversaw the 
response to numerous flood and other disasters that impacted water 
treatment facilities. Notable events include:
2010 Floods, Nashville, Tennessee
    K.R. Harrington Water Treatment Plant (WTP) was flooded and the 
other major WTP, Omohundro, came within 1 foot of flooding as well. 
Metro Water Services was reduced to 50 percent capacity for a month 
while repairs to the Harrington WTP were completed.\3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\ https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/b-one-year-later-b-how-the-
flood-almost-left-nashville-without-water/article_cf2ea3e3-0947-5b3b-
afc2-aec5df825ae8.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015 Floods, Columbia, South Carolina
    A canal that serves as the main source of drinking water for about 
half of the Columbia water system's 375,000 customers collapsed in two 
places following historic rainfall and flooding over the weekend, 
sending contractors scrambling to build a rock dam to plug the holes 
while National Guard helicopters dropped giant sandbags in the rushing 
water.\4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\ https://toronto.citynews.ca/2015/10/08/as-flooding-recedes-
after-historic-rains-coming-home-in-south-carolina-can-lead-to-
heartbreak/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Water Crisis, Flint, Michigan
    High lead levels and other issues resulted in a Presidential 
Emergency Declaration with FEMA providing support to the State of 
Michigan for 8 months.\5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \5\ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5353852/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Not considering the impacts of disasters on drinking water systems, 
many water systems are behind in replacing aging infrastructure. Both 
the American Water Works Association \6\ and the EPA identify renewal 
and replacement of ageing water infrastructure as a primary concern. 
EPA estimates that drinking water and wastewater utilities need to 
invest almost $744 billion to repair and replace their existing 
infrastructure over the next 20 years.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\ https://www.awwa.org/AWWA-Articles/awwas-state-of-the-water-
industry-report-now-available.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Adding to issue of aging infrastructure, poor financial health of 
some drinking water systems has resulted in delayed maintenance, low 
staffing levels, lack of training, that increases the likelihood of 
system failures.
                               next steps
    The General Accounting Office (GAO) was asked to review what 
Federal actions may be taken to reduce the potential impacts of climate 
change and related effects on drinking water and wastewater 
infrastructure. Their report ``Technical Assistance and Climate 
Resilience Planning Could Help Utilities Prepare for Potential Climate 
Change Impacts'' GAO-20-24 Published: Jan 16, 2020. Publicly Released: 
Feb 13, 2020.
    GAO recommends that EPA identify technical assistance providers and 
engage them in a network to help water utilities incorporate climate 
resilience into infrastructure projects.
    GAO also recommends that Congress should consider requiring that 
climate resilience be incorporated in the planning of all drinking 
water and wastewater projects that receive Federal financial assistance 
from programs that EPA, FEMA, HUD, and USDA administer.
    I recommend that this committee consider requesting relevant 
agencies conduct a risk assessment of existing drinking water 
facilities based on increasing flood risk and aging infrastructure to 
identify vulnerable communities.
    And finally, these reviews should consider past actions that have 
resulted in lack of investment or barriers to Federal funding at the 
local level for repairing and upgrading drinking water systems.

    Chairman Thompson. Thank you for your testimony, Mr. 
Fugate.
    The Chair recognizes Mr. Gadis to summarize his statement 
for 5 minutes.

STATEMENT OF DAVID L. GADIS, CEO AND GENERAL MANAGER, DISTRICT 
             OF COLUMBIA WATER AND SEWER AUTHORITY

    Mr. Gadis. Thank you very much.
    Chairman Thompson, Ranking Member Katko, and distinguished 
Members of the committee, I am David Gadis, CEO and general 
manager of D.C. Water and a member of President Biden's 
National Infrastructure Advisory Council. Thank you for the 
opportunity to testify today on the resiliency of the Nation's 
critical water infrastructure and the importance of making 
environmental justice and water equity part of that 
conversation.
    As CEO of D.C. Water, I oversee a $1 billion annual budget, 
a work force of approximately 1,200 employees, the distribution 
of drinking water in the Nation's capitol, and the largest 
advanced wastewater treatment plant in the world that provides 
services to nearly 700,000 residents in Washington, DC and 
another 1.6 million residents in the neighboring counties of 
Maryland and Virginia.
    Since taking leadership in 2018 a goal of mine has been to 
lead transformation initiatives related to environmental 
justice and water equity, including our first-in-class customer 
assistance programs and Lead-Free D.C. initiative, which will 
eliminate all lead service lines within the District by 2030.
    As the recent water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi has 
highlighted, Federal policy to secure the resilience of the 
Nation's critical water infrastructure must include 
consideration of environmental justice and water equity and 
climate change. As the funds for water investment are 
distributed from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, we 
must be sure these resources are distributed on an equitable 
basis to all communities. In my role serving communities in the 
District of Columbia who have often been overlooked for these 
investments in the past, I have a unique vantage point on these 
issues and know that today's under-investment is tomorrow's 
crisis.
    Our primary mission at D.C. Water is to deliver clean, 
safe, and reliable drinking water to our residents. This 
includes protecting water and wastewater infrastructure from 
potential threats, including physical and cyber attacks. As 
part of this on-going cyber resiliency effort, D.C. Water is a 
member of the sector of the National Cybersecurity Task Force. 
We are also partnering with the Environmental Protection 
Agency, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, as 
well, and Water Sector Coordinating Council, also known as 
WSCC.
    To help develop recommendations for improving cybersecurity 
for our sector, our cybersecurity model is based on the NIST's 
cybersecurity framework. We limit access to physical facilities 
and data systems, we have continuous monitoring of an analysis 
of our systems for potential threats and are able to block 
attacks and maintain systems. Maintaining a strong cyber 
defense is just as much a part of our infrastructure as 
maintaining our pipes and filtration systems. Robust planning 
for cybersecurity is no longer optional in the water sector. It 
is a key part of what we do every day.
    The Federal Government is a key partner in maintaining and 
upgrading water infrastructure. For example, I am pleased that 
last month FEMA announced a $20 million grant for construction 
of a flood wall around Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment Plant 
here in the District of Columbia. This grant will help support 
resilience against predicted sea-level rise, providing 
protection for a plant that serves over 2 million people in the 
District, also in Maryland and Virginia.
    Also in my newly-appointed role as the water utility expert 
on the President's National Infrastructure Advisory Council, I 
am looking forward to working with the White House on how to 
improve local and Federal partnerships and improve security and 
resilience of the Nation's critical water sector.
    Further, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act gives 
us an important initial investment in starting the process to 
restore our aging water infrastructure and also wastewater 
infrastructure.
    As we look to building a long-term resilience into critical 
infrastructure, I would ask that Congress continue its 
commitment to grow this water infrastructure funding as there 
is still much work to be done. For example, not all the water 
infrastructure programs that are created in today's bills are 
actually funded. I ask that Congress fully fund all the water 
infrastructure programs that were authorized in the IHAA in the 
fiscal year 2023 appropriations legislation, including two 
programs that would directly support the physical and the cyber 
resiliency within the water sector.
    In my role with D.C. Water I know that there are many 
challenges ahead, however I also know these challenges can be 
met. The issues facing water utilities are not insurmountable, 
but they are complex.
    Again, I thank you for inviting me to testify before you 
today and I look forward to working with you to tackle these 
policy issues head on.
    Thank you very much.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Gadis follows:]
                  Prepared Statement of David L. Gadis
                      September 21, 2022, 10 A.M.
    Chairman Thompson, Ranking Member Katko, and distinguished Members 
of the committee, I am David Gadis, CEO and general manager of DC Water 
and a member of President Biden's National Infrastructure Advisory 
Council. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today on the 
resiliency of the Nation's critical water infrastructure and the 
importance of making environmental justice and water equity part of 
that conversation.
    As CEO of DC Water, I oversee a $1 billion annual budget, a 
workforce of approximately 1,200 employees, the distribution of 
drinking water in the Nation's capital, and the largest advanced 
wastewater treatment plant in the world that provides services for 
nearly 700,000 residents in Washington DC and another 1.6 million 
residents in neighboring counties in Maryland and Virginia. Since 
taking leadership in 2018, a goal of mine has been to lead 
transformative initiatives related to environmental justice and water 
equity including our first-in-class customer assistance programs and 
the Lead Free DC initiative, which will eliminate all lead service 
lines within the District by 2030.
    As the recent water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi has highlighted, 
Federal policy to secure the resilience of the Nation's critical water 
infrastructure must include consideration of environmental justice and 
water equity, and climate change. As the funds for water investment are 
distributed from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, we must be 
sure these resources are distributed on an equitable basis to all 
communities. In my role serving communities in the District of Columbia 
who have often been overlooked for these investments in the past, I 
have a unique vantage point on these issues and know that today's 
underinvestment is tomorrow's crisis.
    Our primary mission at DC Water is to deliver clean, safe, and 
reliable drinking water to our residents. This includes protecting 
water and wastewater infrastructure from potential threats, including 
physical and cyber attacks. As part of this on-going cyber resiliency 
effort, DC Water, as a member of the Water Sector National Cyber 
Security Taskforce, is partnering with the Environmental Protection 
Agency (EPA), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), 
and Water Sector Coordinating Council (WSCC) to help develop 
recommendations for improving cyber security for the sector. Our cyber 
security model is based on the NIST cybersecurity framework. We limit 
access to physical facilities and data systems, have continuous 
monitoring and analysis of all our systems for potential threats, and 
are able to block attacks and maintain systems. Maintaining a strong 
cyber defense is just as much a part of our infrastructure as 
maintaining our pipes and filtration systems. Robust planning for 
cybersecurity is no longer optional in the water sector--it is a key 
part of what we do every day.
    The Federal Government is a key partner in maintaining and 
upgrading our water infrastructure. For example, I'm pleased that last 
month FEMA announced a $20 million grant for construction of a 
floodwall around the Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment Plant. This grant 
will help support resilience against predicted sea-level rise, 
providing protection for a plant that serves over 2 million people in 
the District, Maryland, and Virginia.
    Also, in my newly-appointed role as the water utility expert on the 
President's National Infrastructure Advisory Council, I am looking 
forward to working with the White House on how to improve local and 
Federal partnerships and improve the security and resilience of the 
Nation's critical water infrastructure sector.
    Further, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) gives us 
an important initial investment in starting the process to restore our 
aging water and wastewater infrastructure. As we look to build long-
term resilience into this critical infrastructure, I would ask that 
Congress continue its commitment to grow this water infrastructure 
funding, as there is still much work to be done. For example, not all 
of the water infrastructure programs that were created in IIJA were 
actually funded. I ask that Congress fully fund ALL the water 
infrastructure programs that were authorized in IIJA in the fiscal year 
2023 appropriations legislation--including two programs that would 
directly support both physical and cyber resiliency within the water 
sector: The Midsize and Large Drinking Water System Infrastructure 
Resilience and Sustainability Program; and the Clean Water 
Infrastructure Resiliency and Sustainability Program.
    In addition to increased, sustained Federal funding, Congress has 
the ability to increase our resiliency by creating a secondary water 
source for National Capital region. Currently, DC Water is wholly 
reliant on the Potomac River as the source of our drinking water, and 
other local utilities in Maryland and Virginia are in the same 
position. In the event of an incident--from an accidental chemical 
spill to a terrorist attack--our region has no good alternative water 
source. The first step to solving this problem is to authorize the U.S. 
Army Corps of Engineers to study our best options. I want to thank the 
Members of the House of Representatives for their near-unanimous vote 
to authorize this study and ask that you urge your Senate colleagues to 
accept the House's provision in the final Water Resources Development 
Act later this year.
    In my role with DC Water, I know that there are many challenges 
ahead. However, I also know these challenges can be met. The issues 
facing water utilities are not insurmountable but they are complex. 
Again, I thank you for inviting me to testify before you today, and I 
look forward to working with you to tackle these policy issues head-on.

    Chairman Thompson. Thank you for your testimony.
    The Chair now recognizes Ms. Conner to summarize her 
statement for 5 minutes.

 STATEMENT OF ABRE' CONNER, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL 
                   AND CLIMATE JUSTICE, NAACP

    Ms. Conner. Good morning, Chairman Thompson, Ranking Member 
Katko, and Members of the Committee on Homeland Security.
    My name is Abre' Conner and I am the director for the 
Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at the NAACP and a 
member of the faculty of the Environmental Policy and 
Management Program at UC Davis. Thank you for the opportunity 
to testify before this committee.
    The history of disinvestment is evident in Black 
communities facing obstacles to actually creating a lasting 
legacy. Indeed, without immediate action Black communities will 
continue to live a legacy deferred. Over the last several years 
we have seen that failing water systems and deficient 
infrastructure create crisis within community function. In 
cities like Jackson, Mississippi; Flint, Michigan; and 
Baltimore, Maryland alone, there are likely hundreds of 
thousands of Black people who have had brown water or toxins 
like E. coli flowing through their faucets.
    Additionally, disinvestments feel intentional when there is 
a pattern of scarce resources in Black cities. For example, 
since 1996 Mississippi has received Federal funding for 
drinking water systems, however Jackson has received 
allocations for Federal funding in just 2 of those last 25 
years.
    The situation in Jackson is just one example of how 
majority-Black cities and towns across the country have been 
treated in our Nation's history, continuing to the present day. 
My full written testimony provides examples of patterns of 
disinvestments in communities from nearly a century ago, like 
Allensworth and Rosewood. The legacy that Black people hope for 
and the constant similarities to deprive them of resources in 
places like Jackson today.
    We continue to see this disinvestment because often State 
agencies and State legislators control what funding reaches 
Black communities. History is indeed repeating itself. For 
weeks, I spent time meeting with Jackson residents who state 
that they had been using bottled water for decades because it 
has been normalized as simply what people do. Although Jackson 
has shared with the Governor detailed plans that outline the 
urgency of the water infrastructure issues for years, the 
Governor rarely, if ever, responds.
    We now have new Federal investments, but the State being 
the first recipient creates barriers for Jackson. Mississippi 
received almost $75 million under the bipartisan infrastructure 
law. During the Jackson water crisis, Mississippi submitted a 
funding structure that would cap loan forgiveness at $500,000 
knowing that it would take billions to fix Jackson's water 
system. Moreover, to receive American Rescue Plan funding the 
State passed a law that required only Jackson to receive a 
second set of approval through the Department of Finance and 
Administration, adding time to fix urgent issues and yet again 
cementing another legacy deferred.
    Unfortunately, the situation in Jackson is not the first 
time that we have seen Black cities struggle due to the lack of 
support and infrastructure. In Flint, Michigan the NAACP filed 
suit because of the gross negligence of officials that failed 
to detect a water problem. Then, when the water crisis was 
known to harm Black people, the public was told to continue 
drinking water despite understanding that it was contaminated. 
In Baltimore, another predominantly Black city, E. coli was 
found in the water as recently as a few weeks ago.
    Because these issues are systemic, there is a long history 
of incrementally poor decisions that leave Black cities 
debilitated. Congress has the ability to actualize the legacy 
Black communities hope for.
    My full recommendations are in my written testimony.
    First, I encourage Congress to pass the Environmental 
Justice For All Act and for this committee to assess the 
effectiveness of State oversight in historically disadvantaged 
communities for disaster preparedness. There needs to be more 
granular and disaggregated data for accountability as well as 
diversification of funding streams that are not loans. The lack 
of the private right of action under Title 6 and meaningful 
technical assistance remain concerns. Additionally, better 
coordination and collaboration are needed at a Federal level.
    We will continue to highlight the egregious conditions of 
Jackson's water system and how the actions of State actors have 
caused discriminatory impact. But action from this Congress and 
the entire Federal Government is needed to ensure that there 
aren't similar crises in other communities.
    We have made strides in the environmental and climate 
justice space; however, history will continue to repeat itself 
if we do not learn from the past. We need urgent action to 
ensure that this Congress is remembered as the body that helped 
to break the cycle.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Conner follows:]

                   Prepared Statement of Abre' Conner
                           September 21, 2022
                            i. introduction
    Good morning Chairman Thompson and Members of the committee on 
Homeland Security. My name is Abre' Conner, and I am the director for 
the Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at the NAACP and a 
faculty member of the Environmental Policy and Management Program at 
the University of California, Davis. Thank you for the opportunity to 
testify before this committee during National Disaster Preparedness 
Month regarding resilience and security within Black and low-income 
communities across the country.
    Over the last several years, we have seen that failing water 
systems and deficient infrastructure interfere with the fundamental 
operation of key community functions.\1\ We meet at a historic moment 
as the Biden administration has elevated environmental justice through 
efforts like the Justice40 Initiative.\2\ Moreover, the Inflation 
Reduction Act offers the largest direct environmental justice 
investments to date in the United States.\3\ Pursuant to the Safe 
Drinking Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency (``EPA'') has 
authority to allocate $50 million to midsize and large drinking water 
systems for the specific purpose of improving resilience to hazards 
including attacks to cybersecurity that weaken communities.\4\ These 
allocations reflect the critical impact of climate issues on our 
communities. The effect of climate change on Black people has finally 
come into National focus because Black people experience the most 
horrific impacts from historic disinvestment in communities. 
Communities that are years or decades behind on infrastructure 
maintenance and repairs are ill-prepared for disasters to come. Failure 
to invest in Black communities and the ramifications that follow are 
rooted in a history of environmental racism that continues to this day. 
If we examine the effects on cities like Jackson, Mississippi 
(``Jackson''), Flint, Michigan, and Baltimore, Maryland 
(``Baltimore''), alone, there are likely hundreds of thousands of Black 
people who have had brown water or toxins like E. coli flowing through 
their faucets within the last several years--a source of water meant to 
do daily tasks such as brushing their teeth, bathing children and 
showering, or drinking.\5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ News21 Staff, et al., Crumbling pipes, tainted water plague 
black communities, Center for Public Integrity, (Aug. 21, 2017), 
https://publicintegrity.org/environment/crumbling-pipes-tainted-water-
plague-black-communities/; Jennifer Allen, Report Links Racial, 
Environmental Justice, Coastal Review Online (Sept. 9, 2020), https://
coastalreview.org/2020/09/report_links-racial-environmental-justice/.
    \2\ The White House, Justice 40 A Whole-of-Government Initiative, 
https://www.whitehouse.gov/environmentaljustice/justice40/ (last 
visited Sept. 16. 2022).
    \3\ American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, Pub. L. No. 117-2 (2021, 
https://www.Congress.gov/117/plaws/publ2/PLAW_117publ2.pdf; EPA, The 
Inflation Reduction Act: A Big Deal for People and the Planet (Aug. 26, 
2022), https://www.epa.gov/perspectives/inflation-reduction-act-big-
deal-people-and-planet; Press Release, NAACP, NAACP President Derrick 
Johnson on Today's Signing of the Inflation Reduction Act, (Aug, 16, 
2022), https://naacp.org/articles/naacp-president-derrick-johnson-
todays-signing-inflation-reduction-act.
    \4\ Midsize and Large Drinking Water System Infrastructure 
Resilience and Sustainability Program, 42 U.S.C.  300j-19g(f); Edward 
Mahaffey, JDSUPRA, Congress Provides Substantial Funding for a Variety 
of Water Projects in Infrastructure Law With Emphasis on Low Income 
Communities, (Dec. 27, 2021), https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/
congress-provides-substantial-funding-6794946/.
    \5\ Molly Schwartz, The Water Crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, Is a 
Dire Warning Sign, Mother Jones, (Mar. 24, 2021), https://
www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/03/water-crisis-in-jackson-
mississippi-is-a-dire-warning-sign/; Natasha Noman, People of Flint 
Want You to See These Images of the Water They Were Told Was Safe to 
Drink, Mic, https://www.mic.com/articles/132732/people-of-flint-want-
you-to-see-these-images-of-the-water-they-were-told-was-safe-to-drink; 
David Collins, `Abysmal, disapponting': DPW's handling of E. coli water 
contamination information criticized, WBALTV 11 (Sept. 15, 2022 6:09 
PM), https://www.wbaltv.com/article/baltimore-city-council-e-coli-
water-contamination-first-hearing/41232055#; United States Census 
Bureau, QuickFacts Jackson city, Mississippi, https://www.census.gov/
quickfacts/fact/table/jacksoncitymississippi/BZA115220 (last visited 
Sept. 16, 2022); United States Census Bureau, QuickFacts Flint, 
Michigan, https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/flintcitymichigan (last 
visited Sept. 18, 2022); United States Census Bureau, QuickFacts 
Baltimore, Maryland, https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/
baltimorecitymaryland (last visited Sept. 18, 2022); Telephone 
conversation with NAACP Maryland State and Baltimore city leadership 
(September 7, 2022) (notes on file, NAACP headquarters); Roundtable 
Conversation with Jackson Residents (September 7, 2022) (notes on file, 
NAACP Headquarters); Zoom conversation with NAACP unit leaders across 
country (September 1, 2022) (notes on file, NAACP headquarters).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Moreover, schools are affected by this systematic disinvestment. In 
Jackson, students have been bounced from in-person to virtual learning 
because of poor water quality. In some cases, school teachers and 
administrators have been forced to build contingency plans for flushing 
toilets when water pressure is low instead of teaching students in the 
classroom. In Jackson, health care facilities that previously relied on 
local water plants have been forced to develop costly alternatives to 
local water systems to ensure that patients have access to hygienic 
care when water available through the city is not clean. Moreover, lack 
of transparency around water quality and other public services has 
engendered distrust of government services in many communities.
    Lack of transparency at a resident level regarding the flow of 
funds from Federal appropriations to States and localities as well as a 
lack of community input are critical issues for Black communities. 
State governments are typically the starting point for localities to 
access funding to rebuild water infrastructure. A key issue in Black 
communities is minimal access to financial resources without strings 
attached for use in repairing, replacing, and maintaining critical 
infrastructure. Disinvestment has also harmed efforts in communities of 
color to develop and support reporting systems to alert residents of 
critical rates of pollution.
    Since 1996, Mississippi has received Federal funding for drinking 
water systems. However, Jackson has received allocations of Federal 
funding in just two of the last 25 years. When Federal funding became 
available as a part of the bipartisan infrastructure law, Jackson 
received only a small sum of funds with limitations on its use, despite 
the city's crumbling infrastructure. The situation in Jackson is just 
one example of how majority Black cities and towns around the country 
have been treated in our Nation's history, continuing to the present 
day.
    The issue of water infrastructure ownership and nonresponsive State 
elected officials during disasters affecting Black populations runs 
deep in American history.\6\ As outlined below, over a century ago, 
Black communities experienced intentional deprivation of the city's 
water infrastructure that debilitated progress.\7\ This historic 
pattern must be changed through intentional action.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\ Chihiro Tamefusa, Environmental Justice in Remediation: Tools 
for Community Empowerment (2016). (B.A. thesis, Pomona College) http://
scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/144.
    \7\ Infra Part II.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Today, I hope to make clear through my testimony the depth and 
breadth of water and infrastructure issues that have affected Black 
communities for years, why something must be done now, and how Congress 
plays a critical role in next steps.
    ii. water needs and racist roots of diminishing black community 
                                progress
    Black people have always cared about environmental and climate 
issues but have often been left out of meaningful engagement with 
policy makers and advocates to assist our communities. Unfortunately, 
the tradition of tearing down and purposefully thwarting Black efforts 
at sustainability and stability of infrastructure is nothing new.\8\ 
Injustices in Rosewood, Florida and Allensworth, California resemble 
the intentional dispossession of resources we continue to witness in 
Black communities today.\9\ In 1923, Rosewood was a small but 
prosperous Black town. Because a white woman accused a Black man of 
beating her, white mobs completely burned the community. Florida's 
Governor offered no assistance to the town despite knowing about the 
tragedy. Currently, there are many Black communities across the country 
that have been categorically excluded from State resources.\10\ We have 
seen this disinvestment because often, State agencies and State 
legislatures control what funding reaches Black communities.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \8\ Jennifer Allen, Report Links Racial, Environmental Justice, 
Coastal Review Online, (Sept. 9, 2020), https://coastalreview.org/2020/
09/report-links-racial-environmental-justice/.
    \9\ R. Thomas Dye, Rosewood, Florida: The Destruction Of An African 
American Community, The Historian 605-622, http://users.clas.ufl.edu/
davidson/arch%20of%20aa%20life%20and%- 20culture/Week%2011-14/
Dye,%20Historian%20Vol%2058(3)%20Spring%201996.pdf (last visited Sep. 
16, 2022); Bilal G. Morris, The Downfall of Allensworth: How Racisim 
And Lies Destroyed A Black Town In California, Newsone (May 16, 2022), 
https://newsone.com/4337335/allensworth-california-black-town-
destroyed-by-racism/; Erica Rose Thomson, Allensworth: Preserving the 
Cemetery of ``The Town That Refused To Die'' (Nov. 29, 2017) (Master of 
Arts Thesis, Sonoma State University https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/
downloads/ng451j09p?- locale=en.
    \10\ R. Thomas Dye, Rosewood, Florida: The Destruction Of An 
African American Community, The Historian 605-622, http://
users.clas.ufl.edu/davidson/arch%20of%20aa%20life%20- and%20culture/
Week%2011-14/Dye,%20Historian%20Vol%2058(3)%20Spring%201996.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Water issues have persisted in Black communities for centuries as 
well. Around the time of the Rosewood fires, Allensworth, California 
also experienced destruction motivated by racism. Allensworth was the 
only California town to be founded, financed, and governed by Black 
people. Allensworth's economy failed due to resource scarcity, 
including water resources under the control of town officials.\11\ 
Agriculture was a key component of Allensworth's financial 
sustainability. A company that owned and exercised control in 
agriculture acted to prevent the town from accessing water sources. 
Subsequently, the community crumbled.\12\ A century later, we continue 
to see how Black communities are deprived of access to clean and 
drinkable water without methods to localize ownership and management 
within their own communities.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \11\ Erica Rose Thomson, Allensworth: Preserving the Cemetery of 
``The Town That Refused To Die'' (Nov. 29, 2017) (Master of Arts 
Thesis), Sonoma State University, https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/
downloads/ng451j09p?locale=en.
    \12\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Decades after the Rosewood Massacre and Allensworth tragedy, 
studies demonstrated the link between the disregard for Black people's 
health and environmental issues based on where Black people lived. In 
1987, the United Church of Christ published ``Toxic Waste and Race'' 
that demonstrated Black people and other people of color were more 
likely to live near toxic waste incinerators.\13\ Twenty years later, 
the United Church of Christ refreshed the study, concluding that 
communities of color still disproportionately lived near 
environmentally hazardous areas.\14\ We continue to see these trends in 
the placement of incinerators in Black neighborhoods.\15\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \13\ Commission for Racial Justice, United Church of Christ, Toxic 
Wastes and Race In The United States: A National Report on the Racial 
and Socio-Economic Characteristics of Communities with Hazardous Waste 
Sites (1987), http://uccfiles.com/pdf/ToxicWastes&Race.pdf.
    \14\ United Church of Christ, Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty 1987-
2007 (Mar. 2007), https://www.ucc.org/wp_content/uploads/2021/03/toxic-
wastes-and-race-at-twenty-1987-2007.pdf.
    \15\ Letter from Lilian S. Dorka, Director External Civil Rights 
Compliance Office, Office of General Counsel EPA to Keith Harley & 
Nancy C. Loeb (Jan. 25, 2021) https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/
20463603/2021-1-25-final-complainant-acceptance-letter-01rno-21-r5.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Notably, even as Black people face these harms, Black stories of 
environmental issues have long been underpromoted, along with 
challenges in engaging decision makers to drive toward solutions. 
Historically, Black and other communities of color united to advance 
their stories as a matter of survival because Black people were not 
welcomed in many traditional environmental spaces.
          iii. water crisis in jackson: a present catastrophe
a. Jackson's crisis is rooted in historical disinvestment
    History is indeed repeating itself. Over the past several weeks, I 
have spent time in Jackson, Mississippi talking with individuals whose 
stories feel eerily similar to the intentional deprivation and racial 
inequities that have harmed Black localities for centuries. Jackson is 
nearly 83 percent Black, and the student population is also 
predominately Black.\16\ Residents have told me that water issues have 
now become critical for Black children and their education, as staff of 
the local school district have spent much of their day flushing toilets 
instead of teaching. Black health is at risk because dentists and 
doctors in Jackson must daily contemplate whether they will be able to 
perform emergency health procedures that utilize water as the 
foundation of medical care. And Jackson residents have used bottled 
water for years because it has been normalized as simply what people 
do. Issues regarding water quality, water pressure, and infrastructure 
are significantly impacting the lives of Jackson residents.\17\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \16\ United States Census Bureau, QuickFacts Jackson city, 
Mississippi, https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/
jacksoncitymississippi/BZA115220 (last visisted Sept. 16, 2022).
    \17\ Chi Chi Izundu, et al., Jackson water crisis: A legacy of 
environmental racism, BBC News (Sept. 4, 2022), https://www.bbc.com/
news/world-us-canada-62783900; Press Release, NAACP, NAACP President 
Derrick Johnson's Statement on Jackson, MS Water Crisis, (Sept. 1, 
2022), https://naacp.org/articles/naacp-statement-jackson-ms-water-
crisis.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The NAACP heard directly from several community members that they 
do not believe Jackson receives its fair share when money is allocated 
for different needs across the State. They also believe this occurs 
because Jackson is predominately Black. Jackson's residents have seen 
first-hand that neighboring communities do not have similar issues 
affecting water quality. Additionally, the State has continuously tried 
to take power away from Jackson's elected Black leadership within its 
own city. This strategic effort to disempower Jackson residents is 
nothing new. For example, for almost a decade, in certain city 
projects, Jackson has sought approvals from a commission that controls 
projects funded by a one percent sales tax.\18\ The 10-person oversight 
commission has only three seats appointed by its own mayor to advocate 
Jackson's projects.\19\ No other city within the State has had this 
process imposed to approve infrastructure projects. And, although 
Jackson has shared with the Governor detailed plans that outline the 
urgency of its water infrastructure issues for years,\20\ the Governor 
rarely, if ever, responds.\21\ Jackson feels like a modern-day Rosewood 
because the Governor has the ability to help, but has refused.\22\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \18\ MS Code  27-65-241 (2019); Dustin Barnes, Mayor names picks 
for 1 percent sales tax commission, Clarion Ledger, (July 2, 2014), 
https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2014/07/02/tax-
commission/12072235/.
    \19\ Id.
    \20\ Letter from Mayor Lumumba to Governor Reeves regarding need 
for emergency funding for Jackson's water (Mar. 3, 2021) (on file at 
NAACP office, Washington, DC); city of Jackson Department of Public 
Works Engineering Division Memo re: 2022 Infrastructure Legislative 
Funding Requests (Water/Wastewater) (on file at NAACP office, 
Washington, DC).
    \21\ Sharie Nicole and Quentin Smith, Lumumba defends city against 
Reeves' comments about Jackson's failure to produce a water system 
improvement plan, WLOX, (Sept. 6, 2022), https://www.wlox.com/2022/09/
06/lumumba-fires-back-against-reeves-comments-about-citys-failure-
produce-real-water-system-improvement-plan/.
    \22\ Chi Chi Izundu, et al., Jackson water crisis: A legacy of 
environmental racism, BBC News (Sept. 4, 2022) https://www.bbc.com/
news/world-us-canada-62783900; Democracy Now, Jackson's Water Crisis 
Comes After $90M Contract with Siemens to Overhaul System ``Ended up a 
Disaster'', Democracy Now (Sept. 12, 2022), https://
www.democracynow.org/2022/9/12/
jackson_mississippi_water_crisis_flood_treatment.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In Rosewood, the Governor knew that, without help, Rosewood would 
surely burn. And in Jackson, the Governor knows that without funding, 
Jackson will continue to crumble. Jackson mirrors aspects of 
Allensworth because water, a critical component of city operations, was 
intentionally neglected by the State. In Jackson, similar to 
Allensworth, the State understands the power of water ownership, and 
thus purposefully has withheld its support from Black residents. A 
century later, Jackson faces the State's purposeful withholding of 
funding to improve the quality of water, a valued resource and most 
important asset of the city.
    Currently, the State holds several different Federal allocations of 
funds and has made it nearly impossible for Jackson, its State capital, 
to receive funding. Mississippi received almost $75 million from the 
State Revolving Fund which is only the first allotment that will be 
provided over a 5-year period under the Bipartisan Infrastructure 
Law.\23\ And in the midst of the Jackson water crisis, Mississippi 
built a funding structure that would cap loans for public water systems 
in the State at $5 million and loan forgiveness at $500,000, knowing 
that it would take billions to fix Jackson's water system.\24\ Indeed, 
for cities like Jackson, this will not make a dent for the projects 
needed to fix its water. And, there is interest on the loans, putting a 
city like Jackson even further in debt within this funding structure. 
The EPA released statements that outlined ``[a] fundamental principle 
of the [State revolving funds] is the flexibility provided to States'' 
and stated that ``disadvantaged communities can include . . . 
communities of color.''\25\ But, contrary to building power for 
Jackson, the Governor used this opportunity to hint at taking even more 
control away from Jackson, knowing he is building a system where 
Jackson cannot win.\26\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \23\ Letter from Michael S. Regan United States Environmental 
Protection Agency to Governors (Dec. 2, 2021) https://www.epa.gov/
system/files/documents/2021-12/Governors-bil-letter-final-508.pdf.
    \24\ State of Miss. Loc. Gov'ts & Rural Water Sys. Improvements 
Board, Drinking Water Systems Improvements Revolving Loan Fund, Title 
33, Part 13 (FY 2022), https://msdh.ms.gov/msdhsite/_static/resources/
17153.pdf; Bracey Harris & Daniella Silva, Jackson's water system may 
need billions in repairs. Federal infrastructure funds aren't a quick 
fix, NBC News (Sept. 2, 2022 4:55 PM) https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-
news/jackson-mississippi-water-crisis-infrastructure-funding-rcna45444.
    \25\ Memorandum from EPA on Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: State 
Revolving Funds Implementation Memorandum (March 2022), https://
www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2022-03/bil-srf-memo-fact-sheet-
final.pdf.
    \26\ Governor Reeves Announces Jackson Boil Water Notice Ending, 
https://m.facebook.com/tatereeves/videos/2899272590376134/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The city loan forgiveness maximum and limitations on Jackson 
funding within the State revolving fund are criteria that Mississippi 
decided to implement on its own. And to make matters worse, the State 
submitted this plan during the midst of a water crisis in Jackson. 
Further, to receive American Rescue Plan funding, each city has to 
obtain approval from a State department of environmental quality. 
However, the State passed a law to require only Jackson to obtain a 
second set of approvals from the Department of Finance and 
Administration. Rosewood, Allensworth, and other Black cities faced 
blatant burning and manipulation of resources. Now Jackson is a prime 
example of depriving Black communities of resources in 2022, this time 
through direct actions of the State.
b. Black people continue to bear the brunt of lack of disaster 
        preparedness
    Unfortunately, the situation in Jackson is not the first time we 
have seen Black cities struggle due to lack of support and 
infrastructure. In Flint, Michigan, the NAACP filed suit because of the 
gross negligence of officials that failed to detect a water problem. 
Then when the water crisis was known to harm Black people, the public 
was told to continue drinking the water, despite knowing it was 
contaminated.\27\ In Baltimore, another predominately Black city, 
E.coli was found in the water as recently as a few weeks ago.\28\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \27\ Natasha Noman, People of Flint Want You to See These Images of 
the Water They Were Told Was Safe to Drink, Mic https://www.mic.com/
articles/132732/people-of-flint-want-you-to-see-these-images-of-the-
water-they-were-told-was-safe-to-drink.
    \28\ David Collins, `Abysmal, disapponting': DPW's handling of E. 
coli water contamination information criticized, WBALTV 11 (Sept. 15, 
2022 6:09 PM), https://www.wbaltv.com/article/baltimore-city-council-e-
coli-water-contamination-first-hearing/41232055#.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In my time in Jackson and in talking with individuals who live in 
predominately Black communities in other parts of the country, one 
thing is common--lack of preparation before disaster hits communities. 
And, because the issues are systemic, there is a long history of 
incrementally poor decisions that leave Black cities debilitated. 
Residents in Jackson, for example, have continuously said that the 
State has deprioritized them when it comes to ensuring they can 
withstand disasters. So it is hard to feel that progress is made when 
the response from a State Governor in 2022 mirrors the response of the 
Governor of Florida in Rosewood nearly a century ago.
    Despite the promises of the National Environmental Protection Act, 
the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Water Act, and Title VI of the 
Civil Rights Act, racial discrimination impacts Black communities.\29\ 
The need for the NAACP and other civil rights and environmental and 
climate justice organizations engaging with communities has only 
increased. As part of our Environmental and Climate Justice work, the 
NAACP has built advocacy campaigns, offered technical assistance, and 
led legal efforts to ensure our communities have representation and 
tools when disasters happened.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \29\ Albert Huang, Environmental justice and Title VI of the Civil 
Rights Act: A critical crossroads, American Bar Association (Mar. 1, 
2012), https://www.americanbar.org/groups/environment_energy_resources/
publications/trends/2011_12/march_april/environmental_jus- 
tice_title_vi_civil_rights_act/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Indeed, Black people have continued to persevere despite seemingly 
insurmountable barriers. In addition to Jackson residents who live with 
regular boil water alerts and bottled water within homes, other Black 
communities across the country are disregarded in similar ways. In 
2021, in Lowndes County, Alabama, the Department of Justice 
investigated whether the Alabama Department of Health and Lowndes 
County Health Department operated their wastewater disposal program in 
a way that discriminated against Black people.\30\ Similarly, the U.S. 
Department of Housing and Urban Development launched an investigation 
in Chicago this year in response to the placement of a toxic waste 
incinerator in a predominately Black and Latino neighborhood.\31\ These 
investigations demonstrate that the concerns raised in the Toxic Waste 
and Race reports regarding environmental hazard placements in Black 
communities persist to this day.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \30\ Press Release, Dep't of Just., Justice Department Announces 
Environmental Justice Investigation into Alabama Department of Public 
Health and Lowndes County Health Department (Nov. 9, 2021), https://
www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-environmental-
justice-investigation-alabama-department-public.
    \31\ Brett Chase, Feds investigating city after civil rights 
complaint filed by environmental groups, Chi. Sun Times, (October 20, 
2020, 3:53 PM), https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2020/10/20/
21524989/general-iron-chicago-civil-rights-complaint-environmental-
racism-hud-federal-fair-housing.; Brett Chase, HUD accuses city of 
Chicago of environmental racism by moving polluters to Black, Latino 
neighborhoods, Chi. Sun Times (July 19, 2022 4:28 PM), https://
chicago.suntimes.com/2022/7/19/23270084/hud-civil-rights-general-iron-
polluters-black-latino-neighborhoods-lightfoot.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                    iv. call to action for congress
    Congress has the ability to create change. Resiliency is about 
building power within the residents to sustain themselves.
    First, I encourage Congress to pass the Environmental Justice for 
All Act as an important step to advance community-based solutions to 
infrastructure and resiliency needs. The Environmental Justice for All 
Act requires agencies to study and address whether people of color are 
harmed with new structures and construction, which could prevent future 
crises impacting communities of color. The law would also expand 
agencies' ability to address historical racism and disinvestment in 
Black and other historically excluded communities, among other 
solutions.
    Next, this committee has a unique role in oversight. I encourage 
this committee to exercise its authority to assess the effectiveness of 
State oversight in historically disadvantaged communities when there is 
an immediate need in to obtain resources for disaster preparedness or 
response.
    Third, there must be better information gathering to allow for 
accountability. Some environmental justice data sets contain only high-
level data regarding pollution in communities of color. The data 
contains incomplete information regarding water pollution and safe 
drinking water. These data sets could be improved by offering more 
granular and disaggregated data to allow communities to better 
understand pollution impacts and populations that are affected. To be 
effective, data must be disaggregated to allow for assessment of the 
influence of race, age, disability, and neighborhood information.
    Fourth, many of the resources that exist for disaster preparedness 
come in the form of loans, but for individuals and communities already 
fighting centuries of infrastructural racism, like Black communities, 
these funds do not promote equity. To achieve the goal of wide-spread 
community resiliency, we should diversify the way that we allocate 
funds for critical infrastructure and disaster planning. This 
diversification must also include more direct funding to cities and 
towns, prior to a disaster.
    Next, there are constraints on the private right of action to 
enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.\32\ It remains a 
challenge for individuals within communities impacted by discriminatory 
government actions to hold their governments to account. Lowering these 
barriers will only strengthen the ability of communities to ensure they 
can hold culpable entities responsible.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \32\ See Alexander v. Sandoval, 532 U.S. 275 (2001); Amna Nawaz, 
How Jackson, Mississippi's water crisis is a sign of larger racial 
inequities, PBS News Hour (Sept. 12, 2022 6:30 PM), https://
www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-jackson-mississippis-water-crisis-is-a-
sign-of-larger-racial-inequities.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Additionally, there must be more information and opportunities for 
technical assistance to communities that need it the most. We applaud 
the EPA for recently opening grant applications for technical 
assistance centers within communities. However, communities like 
Jackson and other historically disadvantaged communities should be 
prioritized to account for historic neglect. And we encourage agencies 
who are offering technical assistance to ensure the assistance is the 
right match for the community. For example, a community may be at the 
implementation phase. The technical assistance needs to reflect their 
needs at the moment.
    Next, there must be more interagency collaboration on the Federal 
level when it comes to disaster preparedness. Currently, communities 
like Jackson are left trying to figure out which agency addresses parts 
of their crisis. It is nearly impossible to understand the information, 
which delays disaster planning efforts. Developing a single website to 
convey disaster preparedness resources and immediate response platforms 
would help cities to obtain the assistance they need when building 
their plans. Indeed, many cities would more easily be able to outline 
specific needs with this level of collaboration and coordination.
    The NAACP has advocated on behalf of Jackson with the Environmental 
Protection Agency. We have highlighted discriminatory conduct by the 
State of Mississippi under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. We have 
documented the egregious condition of Jackson's water system and we 
have urged the EPA to investigate how the actions of State actors have 
caused discriminatory impacts and harm. We encourage the EPA to bring 
justice to the people of Jackson, but action from Congress and the 
entire Federal Government is needed to avoid similar crises in other 
communities.
    We have made strides in the environmental and climate justice 
space. However, history will continue to repeat itself if we do not 
learn from our past. It is disheartening that the crisis in Jackson 
resembles historic injustices in Rosewood, Florida and Allensworth, 
California as well as the recent water crisis in Flint, Michigan. We 
need urgent action to ensure that this Congress is remembered as the 
body that helped break the cycle.

    Chairman Thompson. Thank you very much.
    The Chair recognizes the Ranking Member for introduction of 
the next witness.
    Mr. Katko. Thank you, Chairman Thompson.
    I am proud to introduce John O'Connell III, senior vice 
president of the National Rural Water Association, who will 
soon fill the role of president effective September 27 of 2022. 
That is a daunting task for sure.
    Mr. O'Connell is a New York State water and wastewater 
systems operation specialist who began his career in 1988 with 
the Village of Weedsport, a small town in my district. He has 
served as superintendent or chief operator for the village of 
Weedsport, the city of Cortland, and the town of Throop since 
that time. In his career Mr. O'Connell has overseen many 
improvement projects on both water and wastewater systems and 
has been instrumental in ensuring the operational and financial 
success of the upgrades.
    John also joined the board of directors of the Newark Rural 
Water Association in July 1997. He has served as secretary, 
treasurer, vice president, and president of that association.
    This is just a brief summary of Mr. O'Connell's many 
accomplishments, but based on his vast experience his insights 
will be valuable today when we talk about these issues. I thank 
Mr. O'Connell for his continued services to his communities and 
I am very pleased to have him testify today.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Chairman Thompson. Thank you very much.
    The gentleman is recognized to summarize his statement for 
5 minutes.

   STATEMENT OF JOHN O'CONNELL, III, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, 
                NATIONAL RURAL WATER ASSOCIATION

    Mr. O'Connell. Thank you.
    Good morning, Chairman Thompson, Ranking Member Katko, and 
Members of the committee.
    As Mr. Katko said, I am John O'Connell, vice president of 
the National Rural Water Association, the largest public water 
and sanitation utility organization, representing more than 
31,000 water and wastewater utilities Nation-wide.
    I am also an active farmer, upstate New York, and I 
continue to serve as a certified water and wastewater system 
operator for small rural communities on a part-time basis.
    It is an honor to appear before you today to discuss 
critical water infrastructure preparedness and resilience.
    Before I proceed, I would like to give credit to a few of 
our State associations on an issue that Chairman Thompson is 
currently addressing. The Mississippi Rural Water Association 
has been on the ground working to restore and maintain critical 
water and wastewater service in Jackson, Mississippi. 
Volunteers from other State associations include Georgia, 
Florida, Alabama, South Carolina, Ohio, and Maryland. They all 
came to assist in the efforts. These certified operators 
provided direct assistance to restore operations, locate 
service lines, install new taps necessary to disinfect the 
system. These services were provided at not cost to the city.
    National Rural Water Association and its 50 State Rural 
Water Association affiliates are governed by 350 volunteer 
directors selected from these very water systems associations 
in the Nation. We have more than 750 professional workers in 
the field, we have boots on the ground working 24 hours a day, 
365 days a year, reaching across a nation with all 50 States, 
including Tribes and U.S. territories.
    As we all know, water utility preparation and resilience 
are vital to America and the Nation. According to the U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency's Safe Drinking Water 
Information System, there are currently 50,000 community water 
supplies in the country, 91 percent of them of which serve 
populations of less than 10,000, 60 percent of them which serve 
populations of 500 or fewer. The current public health crises 
in Jackson, Mississippi, the COVID-19 pandemic, the historic 
drought conditions plaguing the Western States as we speak, all 
highlight one essential fact, continuity of safe drinking water 
service and wastewater treatment is essential to modern life 
and the economy. This fact particularly occurs in small, rural, 
Tribal, and disadvantaged communities across the country, which 
we have heard.
    I mentioned at the top of my remarks that I am part-time 
for the simple fact that many small and rural simply cannot 
afford certified operators. I have been in the wastewater and 
water industry serving small communities for 34 years, and it 
is imperative to understand that small communities only operate 
to serve the public interest and are eager to take all feasible 
and necessary actions to protect our public drinking water 
supplies.
    I want the committee to know that when small towns like 
mine need help in operating our water utilities, understanding 
new and complex Federal Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water 
Act requirements, receiving the required training to maintain 
our licenses, and learning about the latest preparedness and 
resiliency practices, we call our State Rural Water Association 
and ask for technical assistance. These professionals travel 
directly to our town and focus on specific water utility 
issues. For over 40 years, they have been essential to almost 
every small and rural community in New York and across the 
country.
    However, the reality for many small and rural water and 
wastewater systems is that financial and human capacity 
limitations exist which impact their preparedness and 
resilience. With smaller economies of scale combined with 
lower-income residents, providing safe, affordable, and 
sustainable service can become challenging. Just a note on 
that, right now Nation-wide we are facing a mass reduction in 
utility directors. I believe it is 50 percent Nation-wide of 
people who are going to retire in the next 3 to 4 years, 75 
percent in New York State.
    Many of these small systems rely on the user rates paid by 
their customers to entire operation including debt service 
loans, paying staff, equipment, disinfection products, and 
energy costs. In addition, as inflation has hit all Americans, 
small and rural utilities are not immune. Disinfection 
chemicals to preserve public health, the increase in cost in 
just chemicals alone are 300 percent, forcing some rural 
utilities to pass on the costs to their lower-income customers 
that are already struggling financially.
    As the committee considers options to consider this 
critical infrastructure and water sector, the National Rural 
Water Association suggests preparedness and resilience 
assistance--establish competitive grant programs with the DHS 
to include activities to assist small and rural communities 
with preparedness and resilience assistance. Respond to our 
rural water associations, natural disasters, and extreme 
weather incidents are increasing as we just heard today.
    As of now, these efforts are limited to recovery and 
restoration activities. Assistance should be expanded to 
include preparedness and resiliency, potentially include the 
loss of services.
    Priority could be targeted to vulnerable communities and 
activities could include but not be limited to conducting 
assessments of critical infrastructure with suggestions of 
modifications necessary to harden utilities performing 
resiliency and mitigation planning and to include direct 
application assistance to access available State and Federal 
funding.
    Disaster recovery planning: Disaster recovery planning 
could include training, establishing emergency response plans, 
communication protocols, hazard recognition, and enhancing 
staff evaluation skills. National Rural Water recommends DHS 
fund direct emergency technical assistance to restore services 
including pumps, motors, evaluation and repair, water 
disinfection, flushing, leak detection, line repair, water main 
and valve location, emergency power generation, bypass pumping, 
water treatment, and maintenance safety measures during 
difficult working conditions. Application assistance should 
also provide to access State and Federal funding, including 
FEMA and insurance recovery claims.
    Chairman Thompson. Will the gentleman wrap up his statement 
please?
    Mr. O'Connell. I will. Let me switch my page.
    Again, we are eager to partner with DHS in assessing the 
needs of every small water utility. Together, we provide the 
expertise to ensure all necessary protective actions are 
conducted in a timely manner, resulting in a more resilient, 
prepared, and secure water sector.
    Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. O'Connell follows:]
               Prepared Statement of John O'Connell, III
                           September 21, 2022
    Good morning, Chairman Thompson, Ranking Member Katko, and Members 
of the committee. I am John O'Connell, the senior vice president of the 
National Rural Water Association (NRWA), the largest public drinking 
water and sanitation utility organization representing more than 31,000 
water and wastewater utilities Nation-wide. I am also an active farmer 
in up-State New York, and I continue to serve as a certified Water and 
Wastewater Systems operator for a small rural community on a part-time 
basis.
    It is an honor to appear before you today to discuss Critical Water 
Infrastructure Preparedness and Resilience. I must first thank the 
committee for providing this important opportunity to highlight water 
and wastewater utilities, one of the Nation's 16 critical 
infrastructure sectors. These lifeline community services are often 
overlooked.
    Before I proceed, if you will indulge me, I would like to give 
credit to a few of our State associations on an issue that Chairman 
Thompson is currently addressing. The Mississippi Rural Water 
Association has been on the ground working to restore and maintain 
critical water and wastewater service in Jackson, Mississippi. 
Volunteers from our State associations in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama 
all came to assist in this effort. These certified operators provided 
direct assistance to restore operations, locate service lines, and 
install new taps necessary to disinfect the system. These services were 
provided at no cost to the city.
    The National Rural Water Association and our 50 State Rural Water 
Association affiliates are governed by over 350 volunteer directors 
elected from these very water systems across the Nation. We have a 
cadre of more than 750 water professionals working in the field. We 
have boots on the ground, working 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, 
reaching across the Nation in all 50 States including Tribes and U.S. 
territories.
    As we all know, water utility preparedness and resiliency are vital 
to rural America and the Nation. According to the U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency's Safe Drinking Water Information System, there are 
currently 50,000 community water supplies in the country, 91 percent of 
which serve populations of less than 10,000 and 60 percent of which 
serve populations of 500 or fewer. The current public health crises in 
Jackson, MS, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the historic drought conditions 
plaguing the western States as we speak, all highlight one essential 
fact: Continuity of safe drinking water service and wastewater 
treatment is essential to modern life and the economy. This fact is 
particularly acute in small, rural, Tribal, and disadvantaged 
communities across the country.
    The COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, demonstrated the vital nature 
of reliable drinking water and wastewater infrastructure. Over the past 
2\1/2\ years, Americans have learned to live and work in these trying 
times, and despite the extraordinary risks, the over 31,000 utility 
members of the National Rural Water Association worked every second of 
every day to provide uninterrupted water services as scientists advised 
hand washing to be a fundamental, frequent action to ``Stop the 
spread.''
    Although small and rural communities faced unprecedented challenges 
like reduced revenues, personnel shortages, shutoff moratoriums, 
customer job loss, increased costs for personal protective equipment, 
and reductions in general economic activity, all types of water and 
wastewater utility system operators, circuit riders, specialists, 
technicians, and locally-elected officials heeded their collective 
``call to action'' and accepted the critical responsibility of 
providing the public with drinking water and wastewater treatment.
    It is important to note that the U.S. Department of Homeland 
Security (DHS) designated our water and wastewater utilities as 
critical infrastructure and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 
and U.S. Department of Agriculture have designated our water and 
wastewater specialists, employed within every State rural water 
association, as ``essential personnel'' to maintain daily, 
uninterrupted services of running water and wastewater treatment.
    Due to the qualifications, training, licenses, expertise and 
relentless dedication of rural water operators, America's economy has 
been able to stay resilient in the face of this scourge and rural 
Americans continue to depend on their clean, affordable water and 
wastewater service every day. It is fitting that these unsung heroes 
receive the recognition they have earned and deserve.
    I mentioned at the top of my remarks that I am part-time for the 
simple fact that many small and rural systems simply cannot afford 
full-time certified operators. I have been in the water and wastewater 
industry serving small communities for 34 years, and its imperative to 
understand that small communities only operate to serve the public's 
interests and are eager to take all feasible and necessary actions to 
protect our public drinking water supplies.
    I want the committee to know that when small towns like mine need 
help in operating our water utilities, understanding new and complex 
Federal Clean Water Act (CWA) and Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) 
requirements, receiving the required training to maintain our licenses, 
and learning about the latest preparedness and resiliency practices, we 
call our State rural water association and ask for technical 
assistance. These professionals travel directly to our town and focus 
on our specific water utility issue. For over 40 years, they have been 
essential to almost every small and rural community in New York and 
across the country.
    However, the reality for many small and rural water and wastewaters 
systems is that financial and human capacity limitations exist which 
impact their preparedness and resiliency. With smaller economies of 
scale combined with lower-income residents, providing safe, affordable, 
and sustainable service can become challenging. Many of these small 
systems rely solely on the user rates paid by their customers for the 
entire operation including debt servicing loans, paying staff, 
equipment, disinfection products, and energy costs. In addition, as 
inflation has hit all Americans, small and rural utilities are not 
immune. Disinfection chemicals to preserve public health have increased 
by approximately 300 percent, forcing some rural utilities to pass on 
the costs to their lower-income vulnerable customers that are already 
struggling financially.
    As this committee considers options to address the critical 
infrastructure of the water sector, the National Rural Water 
Association suggests:
1. Preparedness and Resilience Assistance
    Establishing a competitive grant program within DHS to include 
activities to assist small and rural communities with preparedness and 
resilience assistance. Responses by our State rural water associations 
to natural disasters and extreme weather incidents are increasing. As 
of now, these efforts are limited to recovery and restoration 
activities. Assistance should be expanded to include preparedness and 
resiliency, potentially reducing the loss of services.
    Priority could be targeted to vulnerable communities and activities 
could include but not be limited to conducting assessments of critical 
infrastructure with suggestions for modifications necessary to harden 
the utility and performing resiliency and mitigation planning to 
include direct application assistance to access available State and 
Federal funding.
2. Disaster Recovery Planning
    Disaster recovery planning should include training, establishing 
emergency response plans, communication protocols, hazard recognition 
and enhancing staff evaluation skills.
    NRWA recommends DHS fund direct emergency technical assistance to 
restore services including pump and motor evaluation and repair, water 
disinfection and flushing, leak detection and line repair, water main 
and valve location, emergency power generation, bypass pumping, water 
treatment, and maintaining safety measures during difficult working 
conditions. Application assistance should also be provided to access 
State and Federal funding including FEMA and insurance recovery claims.
3. Cybersecurity
    The two recent water cyber attacks in Florida and Kansas indicate 
that small communities can be a target of cyber criminals. For small 
and rural communities to increase their preparedness and resiliency, 
NRWA has advocated to implement a National collaborative cybersecurity 
water supply protection initiative through DHS, which would result in 
communities focusing on enhancing security based on local risks.
    Only local experts knowledgeable of the individual systems can 
identify the most vulnerable elements in the community and detect 
immediate threats. This initiative could provide funding to rapidly 
assess the efficacy of all small water utilities in protecting their 
cyberinfrastructure, develop reasonable protocols to enhance 
protection, provide assistance to any inadequate cyber protection plan, 
and document the state of the cyber protection in all small water 
supplies.
    Again, we are eager to partner with DHS in assessing the needs of 
every small water utility. Together, we can provide the expertise to 
ensure all necessary protective actions are conducted in a timely 
manner--resulting in a more resilient, prepared, and secure water 
sector.
    Thank you for the opportunity to participate today and I stand 
ready to take any questions that you may have at this time.

    Chairman Thompson. Thank you. We will make sure that your 
entire statement is included in the record.
    I thank the witnesses for their testimony.
    The Chair reminds each Member that he or she will have 5 
minutes to question the witnesses.
    I now recognize myself for questions.
    It is imperative in this country that the Federal, State, 
and local governments to pursue and implement policies that 
strengthen the resilience of our Nation's infrastructure and 
lower our collective vulnerability to climate impacts. Each one 
of you have kind-of talked about that in your presentation. 
This acknowledgment should be regardless of race, ethnicity, 
economic status, urban or rural.
    So for our witnesses, given that this is National 
Preparedness Month, what are some areas that FEMA and the 
broader government can do to ensure that we implement policies 
that ensure that all communities have the resources they need 
to strengthen their preparedness and resiliency?
    We will start with you, Mr. Fugate.
    Mr. Fugate. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Administrator Criswell has already begun to implement many 
policies that are being directed by the White House to address 
equity. But probably one--and, Mr. Chairman, you have been 
hearing this before--when we talk about things like mitigation, 
we always focused on the cost-benefit analysis, where every 
dollar we invest we save future losses of anywhere from $4-9, 
and that sounded a really good answer. It was easy to 
communicate to the committee when you are making those 
investments, well this is going to save the taxpayers money. 
But it had a dark side. That was if you take it out to the 
extent of for every dollar I am investing, where do I get my 
greatest cost-benefit analysis? It tended to drive the 
investments in the more affluent communities. The house is more 
valuable, the infrastructure is greater, generally you saw more 
economic activities there. Because we had focused so much on 
the cost-benefit analysis as expressed in dollars not in 
impacts to people, the bias was always going to direct it away 
from the greatest need.
    I think Administrator Criswell and her team are looking at 
how do we back away from merely looking at a transactional 
description of deciding where to make investments and start 
looking at the functional impacts of these investments upon 
people, aging infrastructure, and communities at greater risk 
that generally have the least resources to successfully recover 
from disaster. These are important first steps, but I think we 
have to understand how we got here, what we can do differently, 
and then really embrace this idea that what we invest in has to 
be for the future risk, not what we have always dealt with in 
the past.
    Chairman Thompson. Thank you.
    Mr. Gadis.
    Mr. Gadis. Thank you very much.
    Your question is a fantastic question and how I would 
answer that is to lift the burden off of low-income households 
and the local utilities that serve them. The Federal Government 
must invest more in our Nation's water infrastructure. 
Critically, the Federal Government must also place water 
infrastructure on par, if not higher, than funding that is 
provided for other infrastructure throughout the country.
    Congress and the Biden administration have made great 
strides toward this goal with the passage of the recent 
legislation, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which 
will provide the EPA with $55 million over the 5 years to 
improve the Nation's water infrastructure. These actions are 
imperative to our country to fight for clean water access for 
all, but unfortunately, it doesn't go far enough. I think that 
we have all spoke to that today as well.
    While these funding programs help shift efforts in positive 
directions, they do not provide nearly enough financing to 
solve the growing issue that we have at hand in the front of us 
today. According to American Society of Civil Engineers of the 
United States, we face a water infrastructure funding gap of $1 
trillion--$1 trillion is what the estimated gap is today. Much 
of this investment is needed to be met not with individual 
customers, but a dramatic increase in the Federal investment.
    A number of the utilities throughout--I am sorry.
    Chairman Thompson. We got it, we got it. Thank you very 
much.
    Mr. Gadis. OK. OK.
    Chairman Thompson. I got two more people. I got a minute 
left.
    Ms. Conner.
    Ms. Conner. Thank you.
    One of the things that would help and what I have heard 
directly from communities that have been historically 
disadvantaged, is that technical assistance needs to be 
meaningful for what they are facing and reflect their needs at 
that moment. The technical assistance often that is given to 
them is not what they actually need then. So really thinking 
about what technical assistance needs to look like in those 
communities.
    Next there needs to be more disaggregated data. I think 
that all of the Federal agencies can play a major role in 
ensuring that there is disaggregated data so that communities 
know what is actually happening.
    Next I believe that collaboration, even though we are 
focusing on FEMA, but FEMA needs to be collaborating and 
coordinating with other agencies. Oftentimes there are 
communities who are historically disadvantaged and they are 
trying to figure out which agency they need to turn to in order 
to receive help. So the more that FEMA and other Federal 
agencies are working together, the easier it is for those 
communities to get the assistance that they need.
    Next, while it is important for all communities to be a 
part of this conversation, there does need to be a 
prioritization of historically disadvantaged communities 
because we know that there has been centuries of disinvestment 
in those communities as well.
    Chairman Thompson. OK.
    Mr. O'Connell.
    Mr. O'Connell. Great points.
    As I said, National Rural Water Association is one of the 
few nonprofit organizations that does offer assistance to each 
community. We have boots on the ground, so to speak. We go to 
you. You don't need to come to us, we go to you. The complexity 
of FEMA and making out applications and everything is where I 
think the problem is. A lot of help that is desired where the 
utilities have really not people on staff, especially in rural 
areas, that can get through the paperwork part of it. We are 
trying to improve that. We need more funding to get more people 
on the ground to go into these disaster areas--we are doing it 
now, but with limited resources--to help them go through the 
process of expediting the problems and to get them answered 
quickly and get these processes in line so that they can get 
funding.
    Honestly, I think that is the biggest thing we need, is 
communication, help with rural communities to administrate how 
they get through the process. That becomes technical assistance 
with people on the ground.
    Chairman Thompson. Thank you very much.
    The Chair yields to the Ranking Member for questions.
    Mr. Katko. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank all of you for 
your testimony. It is something that has been very frustrating 
to me for many, many years, but I have got to say, Ms. Conner, 
what you talk about with respect to Jackson and what I have 
learned from the Chairman, it is an utter outrage. How does a 
city that size not get the funding that is sent to the States 
on a routine basis to help them shore up their systems, No. 1? 
No. 2, how do those leaders let that happen? How does that 
happen, right?
    So, Mr. Chairman, in my opinion, we should use what 
precious time we have left this term to bring some of those 
people up here so we can ask them themselves, how do you let 
this happen? Maybe we can learn the details of possible racism 
involved, obvious incompetence and malfeasance, and make sure 
that we fashion things going forward that are worthwhile.
    These people shouldn't be let off the hook. They have let 
the people of Jackson down, the people in Mississippi down, 
just like they did in Flint. After Flint, how do we let another 
Flint happen? That is outrageous.
    So I would love to talk to you more about it, but I have 
got other things to talk about. But I wanted to make sure I 
acknowledge you.
    Mr. Gadis, real quickly, if I may, you kind-of touched on 
it a little bit, the infrastructure bill we passed, quite proud 
of. Expended a lot of political capital on that one, but it was 
worth it. But I am wondering how much it has helped the water 
systems or how much it is going to help the water systems going 
forward from a security standpoint and from an infrastructure 
standpoint.
    If you could just tell me briefly, what you think in that 
regard.
    Mr. Gadis. Well, I think it is a step in the right 
direction. It is without a doubt not a myth. There is more 
money needed. But also what is needed is to make sure that the 
money is going to the right communities. It shouldn't just be 
spread out and go to communities that have a young system. You 
know, here in the District of Columbia more than 80 percent of 
our water system, or the pipes, are near their age of needing 
to be replaced. So you have to make sure the money is going to 
the right place. It is a step in the right direction, but it 
does have shortfalls without a doubt.
    Mr. Katko. All right. Thank you very much.
    Mr. O'Connell, now to juxtapose those big cities, I know 
very well from my district and many rural districts how much 
they struggle. So in your testimony you outlined the financial 
and human capacity issues that some rural communities face. You 
also mentioned that some of these utilities were forced to pass 
on additional costs to rate payers who can't afford them. You 
have run a similar system. If a small utility wanted to enhance 
the resiliency to protect their customers from weather-related 
incidents, how would they absorb this cost without devastating 
lower-income communities? How do you do it?
    Mr. O'Connell. We cut back. As I noted, I am a part-time 
employee there and we simply have to cut back. We have to use 
DPW workers to help us and--to even come close to that. I mean 
the chemical cost alone has got to be passed on to the 
consumer. There is no other way to dodge that bullet.
    As far as the labor force goes, we even use some sheriff 
department help on doing some hydrant maintenance and stuff of 
that nature. We try to get some summer help part-time. We are 
doing everything we can to alleviate the cost of increasing our 
cost to our customers. We do everything we can.
    As far as the infrastructure goes, the biggest thing--and I 
see what is happening in the--the money is great, the backlog 
right now is deliverables on supplies and also because of the 
American Act, we can't--these communities can't get materials. 
So that has been an obstacle.
    But to answer your question, yes, Mr. Katko.
    Mr. Katko. Thank you very much.
    Mr. Fugate, I want to touch base with you on something 
different, something that is very concerning to me. That is the 
cyber vulnerabilities. We have vulnerabilities in cyber Nation-
wide and I think it is the biggest threat to our country right 
now. Five years ago I would have said ISIS-inspired acts of 
violence, now I think one of the greatest threats to the 
homeland is cyber. Certainly it is in the water systems.
    Could you summarize for us briefly some of your concerns 
with respect to cyber and what we can do about it?
    Mr. Fugate. Well, I think, you know, the first thing is--
and I think, you know, reasonably with the invasion of Ukraine, 
we are no longer dealing with cyber hackers, we are dealing 
with nation sponsorship. This is pure adversaries. They are no 
longer looking merely at causing chaos, they are actually 
looking at how they could disrupt National security, our 
ability to mobilize, our economies, and our confidence in 
Government.
    I serve on a board of a major utility and across all of 
these infrastructures, cyber threats are at the foremost and it 
is far greater than ransomware.
    So, again, I think the work that CISA does at DHS, the 
information that is going out, this is an active threat. You 
know, in my world I look at two things that have changed 
dramatically in my career--cyber and climate. Neither were 
things we were planning for when I started my career and now 
they are at the pinnacle of the risk to our Nation.
    Mr. Katko. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    I yield back.
    Chairman Thompson. The gentleman yields back.
    The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey for 5 
minutes, Mr. Payne.
    Mr. Payne. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Mr. Gadis, we are seeing a wave of cyber attacks cripple 
major parts of our Nation's critical infrastructure, pipelines, 
chemical plants, manufacturers, and meat packers. Last year a 
hacker gained access to a water treatment plant in Oldsmar, 
Florida and was able to change the chemical settings in a way 
that it if undetected would have poisoned the local water 
supply. While the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi was not 
caused by a hacker, it demonstrates the damage that water 
system failures or disruptions can cause.
    Mr. Gadis, are incidents like the one in Oldsmar, Florida 
or the more recent ransomware attack that crippled the South 
Staffordshire Water Company in the United Kingdom, driving 
stronger cybersecurity practices within the water sector?
    Mr. Gadis. I am sorry, I didn't hear the last part of your 
question. I apologize. The very last part.
    Mr. Payne. That is OK. So would you consider those to be 
driving stronger cybersecurity practices within the water 
sector because of those incidents?
    Mr. Gadis. Well, it is a great point that you make. The 
cybersecurity is very, very important I think in the water 
sector. It is very much similar to the infrastructure. The 
costs are outrageous for utilities to continue down the path 
that we are continuing down today to keep the utilities safe.
    We at D.C. Water do everything that we can. I think we are 
in a better position than a number of other utilities 
throughout the country in which we--on a day-to-day basis we 
are looking at cyber, we are looking at the attacks. We have a 
number of threats that come through our system on a day-to-day 
basis. But at the end of the day, the utilities are very prone 
to cyber attacks and it is something that we have to continue 
to build up. We have to continue to work I think with the 
Federal Government, with EPA, and others to find funding for 
cyber as well.
    Mr. Payne. Thank you.
    Mr. Gadis. Thank you.
    Mr. Payne. CISA offers a variety of programs and services 
to help critical infrastructure owners and operators in all 
sectors, including water, help to shore up your cybersecurity 
defenses.
    Mr. Gadis, has D.C. Water taken advantage of any of the 
CISA free cybersecurity services?
    Mr. Gadis. Yes.
    Mr. Payne. Or partner with CISA through programs like 
CyberSentry or Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative?
    Mr. Gadis. Yes, we do. We actually sit on a number of those 
different organizations, on the boards or on the committees and 
working with them. We take full advantage of all of the 
cybersecurity expertise that we can get from these 
organizations, including the EPA and many others regarding 
cyber.
    So the answer is yes to your question.
    Mr. Payne. Thank you, sir.
    To my colleagues, if your districts haven't taken advantage 
of the CISA programs, I would suggest that you take a look at 
them.
    With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
    Chairman Thompson. The gentleman yields back.
    The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Louisiana for 5 
minutes, Mr. Higgins.
    Mr. Higgins. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Appreciate you having 
this hearing today.
    It has been startling observing what has been happening 
with the water quality in the capital of one of our sovereign 
States, my neighboring State, Mississippi. My wife is from 
Mississippi. We are familiar with Jackson. My observation 
during the course of my life is obviously south Louisiana, we 
have to deal with a lot of water. We have hurricanes and we 
have--you know, we have a lot of coastal land, the Gulf of 
Mexico, we have heavy rains, dealing with flood issues and 
preparations for flood mitigation and the expenditures required 
and the focus and the discipline of our local elected officials 
to prepare the next generation for major water events and to 
provide quality water for our citizenry. This is largely the 
role of local elected officials and my observations have been 
that the quality and effectiveness of water and drainage in our 
municipalities directly reflect the quality and effectiveness 
of the leadership in those municipalities.
    I think Mr. Gadis could perhaps address this question. Why 
would one municipality that shares a common geographical region 
with other cities of similar size and funding revenue, why 
would one municipality be effective at dealing with water and 
another not?
    Mr. Gadis. Well, each utility has its own differences, 
trust me. Even the proximity of some of those utilities, they 
can get sometimes totally different types of rainfall. So, for 
example, you know, you talk about a 15-year rainfall, a 15-
year-flood type rainfall, we have had that happen in the 
District of Columbia on three or four different occasions in 
the past 2 years.
    Mr. Higgins. Yes, sir.
    Mr. Gadis. So as a result of that, I think each utility has 
also spent their money in different places as well. I think 
that is what it boils down to.
    Mr. Higgins. Don't you think water quality is sort-of a 
cornerstone of--to be able to recover from anything? It would 
seem that we have an example in south Louisiana, I had personal 
experience with my father after he retired, did some work as a 
consultant engineer for Jefferson Parish in the 1970's. In 
Louisiana we have parishes, the rest of the country has 
counties--same thing. Jefferson Parish was installing and 
upgrading very advanced drainage and pumping systems. That was 
based upon, I believe, a 1976 Corps of Engineers study that 
indicated that major water events could end in--like a category 
5 hurricane or if you had a rupture of the levee or something 
could cause major flooding in Jefferson Parish and/or Orleans 
Parish. See, neighboring parishes in Louisiana--during the 
course of the 1970's and the 1980's, Jefferson Parish was very 
effectively run and they installed state-of-the-art pumps and 
drainage and Orleans Parish was very poorly run and they 
didn't. So Katrina came and neighboring parishes had vastly 
different experiences.
    To me you are the expert on this particular topic.
    I care about my colleague's territory in Mississippi and I 
stand by as your neighbor, Mr. Chairman, to help in any way 
that we can to address this at the Federal level, including 
perhaps sharing best practices from some of your colleague 
citizens and municipalities in Louisiana.
    But, Mr. Gadis, what would you suggest would be the first 
course of action? I give you my remaining 30 seconds, sir. What 
should the municipality of Jackson do to immediately respond to 
this?
    Mr. Gadis. Well, I think it is hard to talk about Jackson 
itself. I think that as it unfolds we will figure out and find 
out more information.
    In my experience and my history in this industry, that is 
what happens. I think we should not be quick to take a look at 
this and say here is what I will blame or whatever. That is 
going to take time. This is something I think that has happened 
over a number of years and also different leadership.
    Mr. Higgins. Yes, sir.
    Mr. Gadis. You pointed to that earlier about leadership. 
That is a key factor in I think operating and managing a 
utility as well.
    Mr. Higgins. Thank you, Mr. Gadis.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield.
    Chairman Thompson. Thank you. The gentleman's time has 
expired.
    The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Missouri, Mr. 
Cleaver, for 5 minutes.
    Unmute yourself, Mr. Cleaver.
    Mr. Cleaver. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I apologize. I was 
off the grid for a minute. Thank you very much.
    I want to zero in if I could please on the tragedy down in 
Jackson, Mississippi, because I have come to the conclusion--I 
read somewhere that the love of money and keeping it from 
addressing the needs of poor people is the root of all evil. 
So, you know, you have a lot of evil going on around the world.
    I would like for our panelists to address, particularly 
FEMA, in terms of preparedness, are there systems around the 
country right now that are in as much difficulty and as much 
degradation as we have seen in Jackson, Mississippi?
    Mr. Fugate. Yes, sir. It is just a matter of time until 
they fail or we have another disaster.
    A lot of the things we go to are a result of what I call 
the resiliency divide, where we haven't had the investments 
made, we are not maintaining the systems, there is not the 
economics to do that, you know, from where I am at in north 
Florida. Where I grew up, you know, it is hard for communities 
like Worthington Springs to compete with the city of Miami when 
they are going for grants. It is one of the things that FEMA is 
trying to make sure, is making sure that we level that playing 
field, so it isn't just people with the professional staff 
full-time resources and go get the money. Because if we are not 
making our investments across the Nation based upon impacts and 
needs, we will continue to grow our resiliency divide between 
the haves and the have-nots. Where I am at in North Florida, 
big communities will probably get the grants. Vulnerable 
communities that sit on rivers and streams that will impact 
their systems, as we saw back in 1998 when we had flooding 
across the State, the ones that got wiped out were the small 
jurisdictions who didn't have the resources to build higher and 
they had total failure, which then cost us more to the 
taxpayers, because we were dealing both with the response and 
the rebuilding.
    Mr. Cleaver. I am also concerned about this $8 million 
threshold, which small communities have to meet in order to get 
a response from the Federal Government and some kind of 
declaration of emergency from FEMA. So it fits in with what you 
were just saying in terms of the smaller communities. I have 
got to--and I don't like to--it hurts me to--painful for me to 
say, but also communities that are of color. Is there a need 
for us to maybe spend time trying to make corrections in our 
policies so that smaller communities and communities of color 
are not ignored?
    The reason I say that is, you know, the smaller communities 
are not entitlement cities in terms of the way the Federal 
employment comes in. I mean, for example, I live in Kansas 
City, Missouri, it is the largest city in our State. So you 
will have the resources. But let us say a little smaller town, 
like Orrick, which probably nobody has heard of, which was hit 
by a tornado, ended up without receiving much attention and no 
money from the Federal Government at all. But, you know, 
obviously we cannot leave this to the whims of Congress because 
we are not acting. So maybe we need to do something with the 
way FEMA is constructed so that we can proactively deal with 
some of these, especially now that we have this infrastructure 
money. I am with the Ranking Member--I don't know how anybody 
could vote against it.
    But, anyway, I don't want to over-talk and get a response 
from you.
    Mr. Fugate. Well, representative, I would refer this back 
to FEMA. I think it may be useful for the Chairman to ask FEMA 
to come in and brief on how Administrator Criswell is 
addressing this and try to make sure particularly in the 
building resilience and infrastructure communities that FEMA is 
providing--you know, Congress is providing billions for pre-
disaster mitigation. The steps we are taking to address these 
very issues, to make sure that the money doesn't go to the ones 
that always get it, that we are looking at rural America, we 
are looking at Tribal governments, we are looking at impacts to 
people, and how they are doing that.
    Mr. Cleaver. Thank you.
    I yield back, Mr. Chairman. I ran out of time.
    Chairman Thompson. Thank you very much.
    We have had a talk with the FEMA administrator. She is, as 
you say, well aware of it--actually in the middle of trying to 
come up with new policies to address just what Representative 
Cleaver is talking about, and a lot of other communities that 
are impacted.
    The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Mississippi, Mr. 
Guest, for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Guest. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To all our witnesses, 
thank you for being here on this very important topic.
    The city of Jackson is a city that I along with Chairman 
Thompson both represent. We have both been in meetings with 
elected officials, State elected officials, city elected 
officials. Our offices have been in contact with Federal and 
State agencies and are currently working to try to find 
solutions to this problem. I know many of you referenced our 
capital city in your reports that you provided prior to you 
testimony here today.
    Mr. Fugate, I want to ask you, I know you referenced the 
city of Jackson. You talked about both flooding and preexisting 
conditions that may have been a factor. Are you familiar with 
the city of Jackson? Have you been briefed or received any 
information specifically on the current crisis that is 
currently being mitigated? Or are you just aware from media 
reports that you have received?
    Mr. Fugate. Media reports and some discussions with various 
staff, but I have not been directly involved, nor have I been 
briefed on the specifics.
    Mr. Guest. What information are you aware as far as the 
preexisting conditions that may have exited? I know generally 
you talk on the final page of your written testimony about--and 
again I don't know if this is specifically to Jackson--you talk 
about aging infrastructure, poor financial health, delayed 
maintenance, low staffing, lack of training. Those things that 
you all list would increase the likelihood of a system failure. 
Do any of those--are those applicable to the water system 
failure in the city of Jackson?
    Mr. Fugate. Well, based upon the reports, they were having 
water quality issues before the flooding. So that--actually 
that statement didn't come from Jackson, that was basically 
looking at the American Waterworks Association and what are 
indicators or risk they see across the Nation in water systems. 
So this is much more wide-spread than just looking at what 
happened in Jackson.
    Mr. Guest. Let me specifically--and again, with me 
representing a portion of the capital city, I want to continue 
to talk specifically about the city of Jackson--this was an 
article published by the Mississippi Today, one of our local 
media outlets on August 31. It says Feds flag dire Jackson 
water problems a month before the system failure. Our water 
system in the city of Jackson has been under an EPA consent 
degree since 2013. There was a follow-up decree that was later 
entered into I believe in 2021 if I am not mistaken between the 
city of Jackson and EPA. Then there was a report that EPA 
published in July of this year, just a few ultimately weeks 
before the failure of the Jackson water system. These were some 
of the things that were cited in that EPA report: Poor 
administration, lack of staff, it said operator turnover is 
high with some reporting working 75 hours a week without 
overtime pay. The report talks about finances are in shambles. 
It said the city was unable to provide a complete list of 
customers when inspectors visited and explained that some 
customers received no bills while others received large bills. 
The city could not calculate its collection rate and said this 
issue isn't something expected to be resolved until late 2024. 
It also referred to the malfunction of water meters, which had 
contributed to a 30 percent decrease in revenue, that 1,400 
bills were stranded or not sent or received by customers, it 
talks about customer complaints, a lack of routine monitoring 
and maintenance. It said that the city failed to collect and 
record continuous pressure data which could identify problems 
within the system, it talks about the water in storage tanks 
that weren't cycled, and then it talks about frequent line 
breaks. It said a report from 2017 through 2021 said that the 
average line break was 55 per 100 miles of line, far exceeding 
the 15 per 100 miles a year that is considered safe.
    So my question is, these things that you see here in this 
report specifically as it relates to the city of Jackson, it 
appears that it was definitely a contributing factor to the 
crisis. But I think what you are saying is this is not unique 
to the city of Jackson, that this is something that many of our 
major urban cities, particularly older cities that have not had 
recent growth, that they are experiencing--and this is the 
reason that there needs to be both State, Federal, and local 
action to address these problems Nation-wide. Is that correct?
    Mr. Fugate. Yes, sir.
    Mr. Guest. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe I am out of 
time.
    Chairman Thompson. The gentleman yields back.
    The Chair recognizes the gentlelady from Florida for 5 
minutes, Mrs. Demings.
    Mrs. Demings. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, and thank 
you to all of our witnesses for being with us today and for 
being here with the I think sole purpose of solving problems. 
That is exactly I believe why we were elected too, not just to 
point fingers. If pointing fingers helps us solve problems, 
then let us do that. But we are here to solve problems.
    I appreciate the remarks of the Chairman, the remarks of 
the Ranking Member, who asked the question, how did we let this 
happen after Flint, how do we find ourselves--ourselves--in 
this situation again?
    Mr. Fugate, it is great to see you as a fellow Floridian. 
You said that probably there were some people when Jackson 
occurred that said, oh, that is just Jackson. I believe that is 
probably true, but it appears on all that I have heard this 
morning is that we knew, or we should have known, that Jackson 
was going to happen. But you also said when asked the question 
about other jurisdictions, that it is just a matter of time.
    So, you know, are we going to have a proactive approach to 
dealing with this or are we going to sit back and just let it 
be just a matter of time and say, oh, well, that is just 
whatever city is next? We know that communities of color and 
rural and small communities have been left behind and left out 
of the process. So we know that. So the question today before 
us today is how do we fix that, how do we make that right, and 
how do we make sure that every community, regardless of their 
zip code or where they are will have access to quality drinking 
water? We also know that one size does not fit all.
    Mr. Fugate, I will start with you. How do we develop a 
framework that will properly address evolving threats? We know 
that systems have failed because they weren't adequately, you 
know, prepared in the first place. But we know or we should 
know how do we develop the frameworks to make sure that we are 
ready for future threats, more extreme weather, flooding, cyber 
attacks?
    Mr. Fugate. Well, we are doing a lot of it across a lot of 
agencies, but when I was looking through all the reports, I 
couldn't put my finger on any place that says give me a list 
and triage that list of our greatest risk and priorities for 
making these investments. You have EPA who does their work and 
does very well and identifies these issues, you have CISA from 
DHS, looks at cyber risk and the vulnerabilities 
infrastructure, but one of the things that we are seeing with 
NOAA and others are starting to do is mapping more of what 
extreme rainfall looks like and what those vulnerabilities are.
    I think, you know, the General Accounting Office has made 
recommendations back to Congress that probably with EPA's lead, 
but with the Corps of Engineers, with FEMA, and others that 
provide a lot of this funding, can we be more targeted and a 
term I learned from a mentor, move away from discovery learning 
and go find out which of our systems now are most vulnerable 
and look at how we prioritize that target. It may not 
necessarily be, you know, a division across populations or 
States that equitable, it may be there are parts of the country 
that have different risk, different needs between droughts and 
extreme rainfall events that our systems weren't built for. 
Notwithstanding maintenance issues, funding issues, training 
issues, leadership issues, it is just all accelerating. I think 
a triage list was where I would start. Get all the agencies 
together, come back, and say can we come up with a criteria to 
measure against water systems? Don't forget, the little systems 
are just as vulnerable. Maybe only a couple hundred people, 
maybe only a dozen people, but if the water goes out in the 
city of Lacrosse, not only do they not have drinking water, 
they don't have firefighting water.
    Mrs. Demings. With the limited time that I have, Mr. 
O'Connell, certainly I am aware of the challenges of small 
rural communities and you have talked about them, lack of 
budget, lack of personnel, resources. What are your 
recommendations on how smaller communities, rural communities 
can prepare themselves moving forward for cyber attacks?
    Mr. O'Connell. Bottom line is training and people to 
provide that training in the no-cost situation.
    As I said before, the situation is going to get much worse. 
We are facing 50 percent reduction in utility jobs in the next 
3 to 4 years Nation-wide, 75 percent in New York State alone. 
So you think you have got difficult times right this minute, 
give yourself 3 or 4 years and magnitude this problem 10 times 
over. We need more people in the field to go to the utilities 
in a no-cost situation so that we can provide these people with 
the proper training and give them more preparedness of what is 
to come down the road.
    Mrs. Demings. Thank you. I am out of time.
    Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
    Chairman Thompson. The gentlelady yields back.
    The Chair recognizes the gentlelady from Tennessee for 5 
minutes, Ms. Harshbarger.
    Mrs. Harshbarger. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking 
Member and all of the witnesses.
    I want to follow up with what Representative Demings was 
talking about. Mr. O'Connell, you said you believe that the 
bureaucratic hoops that small utility companies need to jump 
through just to secure those Federal grants deter a lot of 
these small water utilities from pursuing these funds. You 
know, I live in a rural district and my office has helped 
specific counties secure funding through these grant programs. 
What kind of changes? You talked about different things like 
the training at not cost, but what kind of changes should be 
made to cut the red tape that is deterring these small 
utilities from pursuing these Federal grants? What could be 
done to better inform these small or rural utilities of these 
opportunities, sir?
    Mr. O'Connell. My opinion goes back to what I said before. 
The small utilities do not have the resources. They don't have 
ITT people, a lot of them are part-time, a lot of them are 
retirement people that are working there part-time. The only 
answer that I have right this minute is we need to have more 
people that can go to these communities that can intercept 
between utility and FEMA and the Federal programs to cut the 
red tape, to make it easier for them, and to be more aligned 
with how they can get their money to take care of the problems 
before the fact, during the fact, and after the fact.
    Mrs. Harshbarger. Well, if they--like you said, if they 
can't hire certified operators, whether they have the capacity 
to hire them, the funding, whatever, how in the world are they 
going to dedicate a cybersecurity and how are those 
cybersecurity personnel to confront the threats that we face 
today? Is it just increased funding? Or tell me what else we 
can do.
    Mr. O'Connell. I don't have the full answer to that with 
small communities. I can tell you that a lot of communities 
around the country still don't have access to computers. Many 
rural areas don't have computers, they don't have IT people. 
The only thing that I can describe as a reasonable answer is to 
National Rural Water Association to the State affiliations that 
we all have, all 50 States have, and to provide the resources 
that we need to put more people in the situation to educate 
them as best we can from what the resources they have to 
protect their interests.
    Do I have 100 percent answer to that? I am sorry, ma'am, I 
don't. If I did I would be a rich guy, but I don't. I don't 
have the answer to the rural water situation. I can only offer 
what we can do now and in the future to educate the personnel 
that is there with the limited resources they have through the 
National Rural Water organization, which is a nonprofit 
organization that goes to the affiliate utilities and will help 
them through any kind of emergency manner or any other manner 
that we can provide the services for to make theirselves whole.
    Mrs. Harshbarger. Well, sir, you said that they didn't have 
to come to you, you would come to them. So how do we approach 
that? What can I do for some of those water utility groups? How 
do we get you to come to them?
    Mr. O'Connell. Simple answer, you pick up the phone, you 
call your State rural water association and we will be there 
within 24 hours, if not sooner if it is an emergency. If it is 
an emergency, we are on call 24/7, 365 days a year and we react 
to emergency and the necessity of that and will put people 
there immediately.
    Mrs. Harshbarger. Well, I appreciate that and, you know, I 
will be visiting some of those water utilities back in my 
district in the month of October and we will make them aware 
that that is always a possibility they can pick the phone up 
and call you and will help them as best as we can get the 
funding that is needed to take care of the people they serve. I 
appreciate you.
    With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
    Chairman Thompson. The gentlelady yields back.
    The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Rhode Island for 5 
minutes, Mr. Langevin.
    Mr. Langevin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good morning to 
our witnesses. Thank you for your testimony here today on a 
very important topic.
    In particular I am glad we are focusing on aspects of 
securing the IT infrastructure. Mr. Gadis had quite a few 
things to say that really resonated with me in his opening 
statement and I appreciate that.
    In 2021 a Water Sector Coordinating Council survey noted 
that just over 30 percent responding water and wastewater 
systems had identified all their network operational technology 
assets and just under 40 percent had identified all IT network 
assets.
    So establishing a complete inventory of these assets is 
obviously an essential first step for such entities to improve 
their security because one cannot defend what one cannot see.
    So, Mr. Gadis, Mr. O'Connell, what are some of the 
challenges that water and wastewater utilities face in 
identifying their IT and OT assets? What Federal assistance is 
needed to support and accelerate efforts by water and 
wastewater systems to improve visibility of their network 
assets?
    Mr. Gadis. To start out with, thank you very much for the 
question.
    But I think that first of all it takes a village. I know at 
D.C. Water we have a large IT department that is protecting us 
on a day-to-day basis, but also it is partnership locally, 
either with your State or your city. I will tell you the 
District of Columbia, we have a great partnership with Mayor 
Muriel Bowser and her team, which they assist us not only on 
infrastructure but also taking a look at the IT side of our 
business as well. So I think that it is key that utilities take 
advantage of State, Federal, and also in their city getting 
those services for those utilities, but also looking to EPA and 
others to help them as well.
    The last thing I would say is unfunded Federal mandates are 
putting a lot of pressure on utilities, not only on the cyber 
side, but the infrastructure side. I think that is something we 
need to begin to take a look at as a community and also without 
putting the burden on the rate payers, because our rate payers 
have to make a decision, do they pay their water bill, do they 
pay another bill, or whatever it may be. But the Federal 
mandates are pushing this very hard as well on utilities.
    Mr. Langevin. OK.
    Mr. O'Connell, do you have any comment there?
    Mr. O'Connell. The comments he made, it always comes down 
to personnel and monies--unfunded mandates as he spoke to. To 
give you an example, what do I do when I need ITT help--I am 
fortunate enough to have a daughter who works at Pinnacle 
Investment. She has team viewer on my computer and when I get 
into a jam she helps me. So I have to use resources beyond and 
above what I have available at my community.
    I am sure other communities use the same practice. Because 
we are in rural areas, we don't have money for IT departments. 
We are not a city. The best resource that I can actually tell 
you that we have to fundamentally take care of the on-going 
system problems is through the State Association that we have 
in rural areas. There is New Jersey and New York and all the 
rest of the States have. That is the only real resource we have 
to combat these expenses that are contributing toward keeping 
our water and wastewater systems safe.
    The ultimate goal is that we all want to keep our water 
safe. We all live in our communities, we drink our water, we 
fish in our streams, we fish in our lakes. We are doing the 
best we can with the resources we have. Fundamentally, is it 
going to get worse? The answer is yes. Fundamentally, what is 
the answer to that? Increase in training, as I have stressed 
upon 100 times today, increase the personnel, not to be EPA--
have new regulations, but let us make them funded resources.
    Mr. Langevin. Thank you. OK.
    Before my time expires, so the same water and wastewater 
survey found that 73 percent of responding water and wastewater 
utilities had between zero and 2 full-time employees dedicated 
to OT security. So both our witnesses there, I can appreciate 
the resourcing challenges that many water utilities face in 
hiring the personnel they need to secure the systems and assets 
under their control.
    My question is, are there other challenges, such as lack of 
availability of cybersecurity talent with specific knowledge of 
the water systems and also that also need to be addressed? If 
so, how can the Federal Government and Congress specifically 
help water utilities address those challenges?
    Chairman Thompson. Is there a particular witness?
    Mr. Langevin. Mr. Gadis. If you want to start with Mr. 
Gadis.
    Mr. Gadis. Thank you very much.
    I am not sure that it is--I wouldn't point immediately to 
the talent isn't out there. I think the talent is out there. I 
think it is about building the team to do so. As I stated 
earlier, sometimes what is keeping utilities from building this 
team is that they don't have the funds. You know, chemicals, I 
know for us at D.C. Water increased by $17 million in 1 year--
$17 million. That was 100 percent increase. When you have those 
sort of things happening, it is tough to put together a team to 
be able to fight cybersecurity.
    Then also again, the unfunded mandates come into play.
    So I think when you start looking at all the expenses, I 
think that is what is keeping a number of utilities from 
protecting themselves from a cyber standpoint. But it is very, 
very important that they do so.
    So we must change----
    Mr. Langevin. Point well taken. I know my time has expired.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
    Chairman Thompson. The gentleman's time--thank you.
    The Chair recognizes the gentlelady from Florida, Ms. 
Cammack, for 5 minutes.
    Ms. Cammack. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, thank you to 
Ranking Member Katko, and thank you to our witnesses for 
appearing before the committee today. Of course I want to give 
a special shout-out to my constituent, Mr. Fugate. Thank you 
for being here. Of course I had to tell my team when they said 
Mr. Fugate is coming. I said, no, we are from the south, it is 
Fugate. Just like it is not Lafayette, it is Lafayette.
    Now, this is an incredibly important topic and it has been 
a little funny to hear so many names of our community heard in 
this hearing today, like Lacrosse and Brooker and Worthington 
Springs, because we do represent a large swath of rural 
communities that really do struggle when it comes to water 
infrastructure. Being a hurricane State, I think Florida knows 
best some of the issues that we face when it comes to 
preparedness and resiliency.
    It is clear that our Nation's water system is one of the 
most important infrastructure components in the country. The 
decentralized nature of the system, often run by local 
governments, can make it challenging when addressing 
improvements and security for water infrastructure. Now, every 
community has different needs and resources when it comes to 
water. I think it has been said here before, the one-size-fits-
all approach does not work. I think both Republicans and 
Democrats can agree on that fact. But it is also that 
decentralized nature that I think also is helpful in limiting 
some of these major attacks that we have seen.
    So I am going to jump into my questions starting with you, 
Mr. O'Connell.
    My district's neighbors in Oldsmar, Florida, just barely 
avoided a deadly attack last year when their drinking water was 
poisoned by a bad actor. We are incredibly thankful that the 
incident didn't end as devastatingly as it could have and we 
continue to process lessons learned from the attack.
    Now, I understand the debate centers around connecting 
industrial control systems to the internet and we see that 
interconnected systems offer opportunity for greater 
efficiencies and modernization. But, again, as I mentioned, 
there could be a greater threat when they are all connected.
    So first part of this is would you say that it is common 
practice to have rural water utilities connect their systems to 
the internet? That is the first part.
    Second part, if yes, do you think that these utilities have 
the proper protocols in place to protect their systems from 
cyber threats that have the potential for cascading impacts 
across operational technology and informational technology 
systems? If no--and I know I am making this very complicated, 
but I have an end game here, I promise--if no, what could we do 
help the smaller utilities in Florida, but also around the 
country and across the Nation, both modernize and secure their 
systems?
    I know, I threw a lot at you.
    Mr. O'Connell. That is OK. I don't know if I can answer it 
all anyway, so.
    The first part of your question, I would say no.
    Ms. Cammack. OK.
    Mr. O'Connell. I would say I don't now what the percentage 
is of people that have remote access to HMIs and over their 
cell networks. It is becoming more necessary for them to do 
that as the technology moves forward and the water and 
wastewater industry, I think it is going to be more common. 
More rural utilities are going to have to adapt to that because 
just on the functionability of the water and wastewater 
equipment, which I am very savvy on--I work for a company that 
provides wastewater and water equipment for all utilities in 
New York State--so as we move forward with that technology that 
is going to become more of a common problem with rural areas 
and all areas, because we are networking through our cell phone 
systems to be able to act quickly or quicker to problems that 
exist in the water plants and the wastewater plants.
    What is the answer to having that so it is not being hacked 
into? I am not sure I can answer that question to you. I can 
surmise and give you my opinion that we are going to have to 
have more protection on our cell phone systems, there are going 
to have to be different passwords. Things of that nature will 
have to be implemented. Unfortunately for a lot of folks like 
me as a farmer, it takes a lot of training for me to understand 
how to do that. So that is when it becomes back to State 
associations, Rural Water, to provide that kind of resource to 
help them with that. But reality is with the new equipment 
coming out, we are all going to have to be more savvy with that 
because you are not going to have a choice.
    The other problem is our product lines that are becoming 
more and more available to the rural areas, we don't have 
repair people like we used to. So they are going to have to 
rely on internet services to do in-house repairs.
    So I tried to answer you question. I hope I did. If not I 
apologize.
    Ms. Cammack. Well, I appreciate it.
    I know my time is expiring, Mr. Chairman, but I do have a 
record that I will submit--or a question for the record that I 
will submit for Mr. Fugate as well.
    Thank you. I yield back.
    Chairman Thompson. The gentlelady's time has expired.
    The Chair recognizes the gentlelady from California for 5 
minutes, Ms. Barragan.
    Ms. Barragan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding today's 
hearing to improve the resilience of critical infrastructure 
for underserved communities.
    As the climate crisis worsens communities of color are 
bearing the burden of a lack of under-investment in our 
infrastructure. We see it in Puerto Rico, where Hurricane Fiona 
caused an island-wide power outage, we see it in Jackson, 
Mississippi where residents in the year 2022 do not have access 
to clean water. This has also happened in my district. A few 
years ago homes in the city of Compton had brown water coming 
out of their faucets.
    As agencies like FEMA make investments to improve the 
resilience of critical infrastructure, Congress must advocate 
for underserved communities to be front of the line.
    Administrator Fugate, the event of Hurricane Maria 5 years 
ago devastated Puerto Rico and left the island with no access 
to clean water for months and the recovery had still been on-
going. While billions of dollars in aid were provided, 
including to the utility, Luma, to improve the power grid, not 
enough has been done to fix Puerto Rico's power grid and 
strengthen their infrastructure.
    What additional steps do you recommend Congress take to 
make sure that the residents of Puerto Rico are benefiting from 
the Federal fund that Congress provides for the recovery from 
Hurricane Fiona and for greater resilience so that this does 
not happen again?
    Mr. Fugate. Representative, two things. No. 1, we have to 
really be stringent in making sure that we rebuild to much 
higher standards, not just put it back the way it was.
    The second thing, and the Chairman knows this, I have 
spoken of this before, we have got to speed up the recovery 
process. Our recovery process when I was at FEMA coming in at 5 
years had barely scratched the surface on Hurricane Katrina. 
When I left FEMA I approved $1 billion project for water and 
wastewater repairs for the city of New Orleans water and sewage 
systems, 10 years after Katrina hit. We have got to speed up 
the process of getting capital in quickly, spent wisely, and 
implementing the improvements to these systems. The time frame 
between disaster has increased to a frequency that no longer 
allows the luxury of decades of recovery.
    Ms. Barragan. Thank you for that.
    I know after the last hurricane a Congressional delegation 
led by Speaker Pelosi was there and we heard about, you know, 
people who also were having a hard time with documents and 
papers to FEMA. So I do hope there will be efforts to make sure 
to do everything we can to assist.
    I want to follow up with you, administrator, about 
something I read about this morning. A roughly 50,000 roof-top 
solar arrays have been installed across the island, the vast 
majority of which are hooked up to a batter back-up system. The 
year before Maria only 5,000 solar systems were in place and 
few of them had batteries. Now, Hurricane Fiona has put these 
recently installed systems to the test and reports have shown 
that they have helped maintain power for buildings where it has 
been installed.
    Mr. Administrator, how can Congress encourage more roof-top 
solar and battery systems for critical infrastructure in Puerto 
Rico and throughout our country?
    Mr. Fugate. I think it is a great idea. Personally I would 
like to try to figure out how HUD and other agencies, as we are 
doing affordable housing, we are not talking about putting 
solar in to run everything. We are not talking about running 
the HVAC and everything, we are talking about enough solar to 
keep the refrigerator cool, keep the fan on, charge 
electronics, provide the ability for medical equipment to work. 
That is not an outrageous cost. The technology already exists. 
I think every opportunity when we go and rebuild, every time we 
provide funding to homes, we ought to be looking at the 
opportunity to provide a back-up emergency power source such as 
solar so that they have minimal functionability. Because I have 
been to enough hurricanes, trust me, that first couple of days 
without power is an inconvenience. About the time you get to 
week 5, people start suffering and medical conditions get worse 
and the cost to us as responders continues to increase, to the 
tax payers providing services.
    So things like rooftop solar, not trying to do the full 100 
percent back up, providing a minimal viable amount of power 
with rooftop solar and battery back up to me is like a no 
brainer. We ought to be trying to figure out how across our 
programs we can make it available so when the power does go 
out, and we know it is going to go out in hurricanes, it 
doesn't devastate our citizens while they are waiting for 
restoration time. Because our systems are not built to 
withstand these storms. It may be faster to build resiliency at 
the household level while we are trying to build resiliency 
across our grid.
    Ms. Barragan. Well, thank you. I do think we need to invest 
in things like clean energy micro grids for critical 
infrastructure. In underserved communities, these are the kinds 
of investments that we need to make for resiliency. I have a 
bill called the Energy Resilient Communities Act for that.
    I will make sure to also provide my other question that I 
have for Mr. Gadis that I didn't get to for the record.
    Thank you.
    I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
    Chairman Thompson. Thank you. The gentlelady yields back.
    The Chair recognizes the gentlelady from Iowa, Mrs. Miller-
Meeks, for 5 minutes.
    Mrs. Miller-Meeks. Thank you, Chair Thompson and Ranking 
Member Katko, thank you to all our witnesses. This is an 
interesting discussion that we are having today, both on the 
cybersecurity front--and some of the questions I had have been 
asked and answered, so I won't ask for those to be expanded 
upon.
    But I am in southeast Iowa, which has both urban but a lot 
of rural areas. I have met with my Iowa Rural Water Association 
and in fact I am on a rural water association. I drink the tap 
water, cook with the tap water, and feel very secure. But it is 
interesting, Mr. Gadis--and it is not a question directed at 
you, but I just want to underscore something that you said. Too 
often this happens in Congress and in State legislature as 
well. You said unfunded Federal mandates cause issues. So 
whether that is issues we have heard today about work force, 
having a labor force. While in Washington, DC it may not be a 
problem having IT or cybersecurity, it certainly can be an 
issue in other rural areas where there are IT people but they 
don't want to come out to a rural area.
    The cost of supplies and activities. When I have spoken 
with my rural water association, my State rural water 
association, you know, the regulations that they have that come 
down from the Federal Government and from EPA, even if it is 
the chemicals that they are measuring, what they are measuring, 
the amount which are things that they feel are unnecessary 
given their long history makes it more challenging for them to 
do the job that they are doing and increase the requirements. 
So whether it is the challenge it is to work force, the cost of 
supplies, the time and travel necessary to do things that they 
feel in their long experience in keeping water clean is 
unnecessary. I think when we are talking about giving people 
training, we also need to look at what credentialing we are 
requiring, what education we are requiring, and are there other 
ways to provide training for people to do these jobs, 
especially in rural communities?
    So, Mr. O'Connell, in the United States, 91 percent of 
active drinking water systems serve communities with 
populations under 10,000 people, to your point. Furthermore, 60 
percent of those serve populations of 500 or fewer. So given 
this fact, can you talk about how critical it is for small and 
rural water utilities to have proper resources and funding?
    I think also, Mr. Fugate, you mentioned that not missing 
the opportunity to serve our rural systems.
    Mr. O'Connell. The system that I take care of is 360 taps. 
So I am kind-of familiar with what happens in small systems.
    We are lucky that we have had resources to provide safe 
water and infrastructure for wastewater. We don't have a 
wastewater plant, we just have a--we disburse water from a 
neighboring community that supplies us with water. I have been 
very active with educating our boards how crucial this is to 
keep up on infrastructure and putting money away for future 
developments and repairs. I think it is a planning thing, I 
think it is a training thing, I think it is educating the 
people that you work for, our boards. Unfortunately in New York 
State the boards in the small towns and communities and 
villages are not required to have board training. So it is up 
to the water operator, the wastewater operator to not step on 
too many toes and to educate those folks that really give us 
our orders and what to do and how to spend our money on what we 
have to create for the future. That is basically a network of 
monies to be utilized to keep our system as great as we can 
possibly make it. Great is not the great word I want to use, 
but it is the word that came out.
    We are proactive in the little community that we have of 
360 hook-ups. Are we in debt? The answer is yes. I think the 
infrastructure was worth it. I think they thought it was worth 
the long-term plan. The training from our rural water 
association has mitigated us not to get in trouble with our EPA 
or our DOH, Department of Health. If it hadn't have been for 
those resources that we could utilize within our small 
community, we would probably be in trouble.
    Mrs. Miller-Meeks. I would agree with that. Our local and 
State rural water associations have done a tremendous job.
    In your testimony you stated--and I know that my time is 
running out, so if you want to answer this question after the 
fact and submit it written, that would be great.
    But when small towns like mine need help in operating our 
water utilities, understanding new and complex Federal Clean 
Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act requirements, receiving 
that required training to maintain our licenses and learning 
about the latest preparedness and resiliency practices, we call 
on our State rural water association and ask for technical 
assistance. More to the point, and this also underscores what 
Mr. Gadis said, would you be able to elaborate--and it is fine 
if you submit this in writing--I know that our time is 
limited--what are some of the complex Federal regulations water 
and utilities deal with every day that you all may find are 
overreaching and further complicate your ability to do the job 
of keeping our water clean and safe?
    If you would submit those to us afterward I would greatly 
appreciate it.
    Thank you.
    Chairman Thompson. Thank you. We will make sure that the 
answers are responded accordingly.
    The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Michigan, Mr. 
Meijer, for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Meijer. Thank you, Chairman, and to the Ranking Member 
for holding this and to all of you for being here today.
    I think the shared goal of this hearing is so that we get 
out of the mode of reaction, right. I am just broadly 
categorizing. We are talking about disasters that occur and the 
impacts because of a lack of preparation, and those that occur 
because of neglect. Jackson, Mississippi was a combination of 
the two. In Michigan, in Flint, it was neglect, in Benton 
Harbor, it was neglect. Each time the Federal Government will--
I think in Michigan, I think both occasions the State 
government, but then with some Federal resources had to come in 
after the fact. But while that problem is waiting to be 
addressed it is the disadvantaged communities that are 
suffering from that, that are having, you know, tainted 
drinking water, that are having to find other means of getting 
what should be an expectation in a super power in the 21st 
Century, which is you turn on the tap and clean potable water 
comes out.
    Ms. Conner, you mentioned that that lack of transparency 
around water quality and other public services, that that has 
engendered a sense of mistrust and a declining belief that 
government is actually there to serve the people, especially on 
a municipal level. I could not agree more. I think one of our 
challenges--because nothing we are talking about here on the 
infrastructure side is rocket science, right. We have had these 
systems for a century. There has obviously been improvements in 
transportation, there has been improvements in cleanliness, but 
we don't need to reinvent the wheel here. Yet I think the two 
most pernicious words in infrastructure are deferred 
maintenance and then what happens as a result. All too often we 
are living on investments in this country that were made--you 
know, when we are talking about our electrical grid, largely in 
the post-World War II-era, when we are talking about our 
highway system, it was also post-war, our aviation 
transportation sector in sort of the 1960's, 1970's, and in 
some cases the 1980's, but when it goes to our water 
infrastructure, I mean that could go back a century or a 
century-and-a-half. Downtown Grand Rapids, when we were 
preparing a new area for a stadium they found water lines that 
were wooden, that had been carrying water for upwards of 170 
years--or I should say 150 years in that case.
    How do we get out of that cycle and how can--to the point 
on transparency, you know, not just the quality today, but the 
known risk factors that will impact quality down the line. We 
have done fantastic work across the country of identifying lead 
drinking water lines. I think that has been strongly 
beneficial. Then again, what we had in Flint was it was an 
emergency program to replace because the lines had already been 
degraded because of the different Ph balance of the water 
coming in from the switch source rather than what is far more 
cost-effective and far more sustainable on the community level, 
which is doing that one whole project. You are replacing the 
sewer main, you are replacing any lead, you know, connected 
lines while you are also taking care of maybe laying down fiber 
or some other improvements.
    I guess I will set that aside, but just say what could the 
Federal Government start to require or suggest or create common 
standards around the quality of existing infrastructure, you 
know, the forward projections of financial burdens and 
financial opportunities? You know, how do we get out of that 
cycle so that citizens can be empowered to demand of their 
public officials that they not, you know, sacrifice the 
investment today that should be made because maybe there is a 
shorter-term priority, only to find themselves in a position 
where they are betraying the confidence of their constituents 
when that moment comes?
    Ms. Conner. Thank you so much for the question.
    One of the things that the Federal Government could to is 
really ensure that there is a transparency in disaggregated 
data. The data is not really there when you look at, for 
example, the data that is available within the EPA's website is 
not disaggregated as it relates to race. It basically kind-of 
overarchingly says communities of color and it also doesn't go 
really disaggregated into types of pollutants that exist within 
communities. So that kind of information is really helpful.
    Additionally, the streams of funding oftentimes go to the 
States. So at the Federal level if there were more streams of 
funds that actually go directly to communities, that would help 
to ensure that folks could get the resources that they need 
more quickly.
    Oftentimes, those streams are loans. So if you are already 
in a situation in a community where you don't have the money to 
actually fix those problems, a loan is not really what you need 
at that moment. You need actual direct investments into the 
communities.
    Then the technical assistance as well just needs to be 
reflective of what they need.
    Mr. Meijer. Thank you, Ms. Conner.
    I am mindful my time is almost expired. For just Mr. Gadis, 
anything you wanted to add obviously is--I mean a municipal 
water system that has seemed to have done a very good job of 
making those investments and planning on the financial side.
    Mr. Gadis. Yes, real quick. I mean what I would add, again 
it falls back to I think communication and being prepared and 
really having a team that can provide the information that is 
needed in order to attack and actually do the number of things 
that need to be done within your system. Then prioritizing. 
Then finding out what assets are vulnerable and then making 
smart decisions on what assets you repair versus allowing 
them--or you replace versus allowing them to go to failure.
    So in the District of Columbia one of the things we talk 
about is Lead Free D.C. That has really impacted and the--from 
an equity standpoint that regardless of race, color, whatever 
it may be, you are going to get quality water. So we are going 
to measure and make sure if you have lead we get it taken out, 
because no one should be drinking from lead service lines.
    So I think that is one of the things I think that we have 
to do throughout the country.
    Mr. Meijer. Thank you, Mr. Gadis.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for indulgence.
    Chairman Thompson. Thank you. The gentleman yields back.
    The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas for 5 
minutes, Mr. Pfluger.
    Mr. Pfluger. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    What a great topic to be discussing and talking about the 
critical infrastructure. You know, as the threat continues to 
increase around the world in the cyber domain, we have to be 
cognizant of how we are defending. So a lot of my questions and 
the lines of questions have been asked, but I will go to Mr. 
O'Connell.
    You know, representing a rural district I appreciate what 
you do. The entire panel of witnesses, thank you for your time 
today. But my specific question is, you know, what are you 
getting from CISA or the EPA by way of good actionable 
intelligence that helps you bolster through your organization 
and therefore the communities? Is intel flowing? Is the, you 
know--are the roundtables happening? If not, what do we need to 
do better?
    Mr. Gadis. I mean I can only speak on behalf of the 
District of Columbia and D.C. Water. We have a great 
relationship with the EPA. The information is flowing, we are 
interacting very well, and I will say that one of the things 
that impacted not only me but the utility when I first came to 
the District of Columbia Water was a boil water alert that we 
had to put out. That helped us in building our relationship 
with EPA because they guided us, they helped us through this. 
That is very, very important I think in any community that you 
live in. So EPA has been fantastic for us.
    Mr. Pfluger. Yes. Well, that is good to hear. In the urban 
areas, which obviously at population centers.
    Mr. O'Connell, John O'Connell, with National Rural Water 
Association, what is your take on information flows 
specifically from CISA?
    Mr. O'Connell. I can tell you that we are in involved with 
roundtable discussions. Back a few years ago, I would say as 
much as 10 years ago, we weren't invited to the table. 
Recognizing that what we do now is where we make house calls, 
we are more active in EPA's and CISA's roundtable discussions 
to get our input as they recognize that 91 percent of the 
communities are under 10,000. So we are being invited, we are 
in discussions with all these agencies, we do interact, we do 
give our testimonies and statements and our views on new EPA 
rulings and all those structures that increase the cost. We 
certainly don't want to increase the cost when not necessary. 
We want to keep our water safe.
    Might I add, you know, we are hearing all the negatives 
here today, but, you know, in my experience of 34 years in this 
business, we still have the safest water in the world. The 
safest water.
    Mr. Pfluger. Yes.
    Mr. O'Connell. So I just want to stress that.
    Mr. Pfluger. Well, that is a good point. Look, we don't 
have these hearings to pat ourselves on the backs, but, you 
know, rather to refine and sharpen, you know, the things that 
need to be refined and sharpened. So it is--you know, it is 
nice to also give some credit where it is due.
    My advice and request to everyone is to please let us know. 
The information flow is really important, whether it is in the 
pipeline industry, as we saw with Colonial, and a lot of 
things, positive things came of that. My district, a town that 
I represent, Odessa, Texas, had some issues with water just 
recently. So these are things that we are very, very keenly 
interested in.
    Once again, Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this 
hearing.
    With that, I yield back.
    Chairman Thompson. Thank you very much. The gentleman 
yields back.
    We have had all our questions from our--the Chair 
recognizes the gentlelady from Texas for 5 minutes, Ms. Jackson 
Lee.
    Ms. Jackson Lee. I thank the Chair, thank the Ranking 
Member for holding this hearing and recognize the importance of 
dealing with the question of water. We are seeing the prices 
from Pakistan to hurricanes in Puerto Rico and into the 
Caribbean.
    But specifically I want to raise the question, Black and 
Brown communities are one of the most vulnerable groups when it 
comes to the effects of climate change and extreme weather 
events. Often they do not have the resources necessary to brace 
or evacuate during extreme weather, but more importantly, many 
of the communities that they may live in do not have the 
funding for infrastructure rebuild.
    Ms. Conner, knowing you work, could you please describe the 
challenges climate change and extreme weather events have on 
vulnerable populations, including Black and Brown communities? 
What can the Federal Government do to help communities confront 
these challenges?
    As you well know, I think one of the major evidences of 
that is Flint, which I went to many times, and my colleague, 
Chairman Thompson, has faced the challenges that he has worked 
so extensively on in Jackson, Mississippi. There are other 
less-known incidences where there have been water crises in 
minority and poor communities.
    Ms. Conner.
    Ms. Conner. Thank you so much for the question.
    What we believe within our experience with the NAACP is 
because the funding streams do not actually go to the 
historically disadvantaged communities, for example, in 
Jackson. The funding streams typically go through Mississippi. 
So if the State decides that it does not want to create a 
system that will allow for Jackson to get funding that will be 
able to help the water infrastructure, then Jackson is kind-of 
stuck. So there needs to be more streams of funding that 
actually go directly into the communities.
    Then oftentimes there is technical assistance that is 
available, but it doesn't actually reflect what the communities 
are asking for at that moment. So, for example, if there is 
technical assistance in Jackson, Mississippi and all they get 
out of it at that time is a report, but they are saying, well, 
we actually are ready for the implementation phases, that 
technical assistance is a mismatch. So even though there is 
Federal funding and there are streams for technical assistance, 
it is not actually what the communities need at that moment.
    I mentioned earlier the data. There is not a lot of 
disaggregated data as it relates to toxins and pollution in 
communities. When you look at the indexes that are readily 
available, it is really hard for folks to actually figure out 
what is happening within their communities.
    Then also, because there has been deliberate disinvestment 
for years within historically disadvantaged communities, Black 
and Brown communities, there does need to be a prioritization 
of their infrastructure. This isn't to say that all 
infrastructures don't need to be reviewed, but when we know 
that there has been a deliberate disinvestment, then there has 
to be a prioritization at the Federal level in understanding an 
acknowledgment of how that has created even more issues for a 
place like Jackson, Mississippi. For example, Jackson's problem 
has only increased. It wasn't in the billions before, but 
because there continues to be deliberate disinvestment in 
Jackson, Mississippi, now they are at the billions as it 
relates to being able to fix the problem.
    Ms. Jackson Lee. Thank you so very much.
    I think that we need to reinforce the fact that the State 
of Mississippi, the Governor in particular, that gave no great 
answers, was really at the center point, the focal point of not 
directing funds. I am glad the bipartisan infrastructure bill 
has equity provisions in there and we can insist that all 
communities, those communities that happen to be everyone's 
communities, that can have equity in water infrastructure 
rebuild.
    Let me ask--Mr. Fugate, we have worked together over the 
years. Let me quickly ask you in your capacity formerly as the 
FEMA director. I just came back from Pakistan where the 
flooding was catastrophic. Now we see what is happening in 
Puerto Rico. Help me understand very quickly in overseeing 
flood disaster responses in water treatment facilities, what 
specific assessment do you recommend be made to measure any 
risk on current water facilities? What are some of the key 
emerging risks water facilities may face? Would you add is 
there any appetite for attacking our water facilities by 
terrorists? Is that something that in your time of service was 
on the radar of FEMA?
    Thank you very much.
    Mr. Fugate. I will answer the last question first. Water 
treatment facilities were on our radar when they got damaged in 
a disaster, not before.
    The other question, as you saw in Pakistan, the way I would 
approach this is--and looking at the flood threat. There is a 
lot of other stuff you are talking about, cyber, maintenance, 
deferred maintenance, all that, but just on flood risk we have 
got to get away from looking at probabilistic of 100-year flood 
event, whether or not a facility is safe. What we should be 
bottling is how much water does it take before a system fails? 
Are we talking about inches or feet? So that way we will know 
how to triage our systems that have the greatest vulnerability 
to extreme rainfall events. We know this is no longer tropical. 
I mean it used to be everyone thought, well, this is a 
hurricane problem. We are seeing feet of water. Now, think 
about this, feet of water in communities setting record-setting 
flood events for infrastructure that was built for what was 
called 100-year flood. It is failing and preexisting conditions 
make it worse. We are behind.
    So I would say the climate has changed, we haven't. What we 
built wasn't built for--we need to go back and look at how much 
water does it take before it fails, not what the probabilistic 
rainfall events historically have been.
    Chairman Thompson. The gentlelady's----
    Ms. Jackson Lee. Thank you so very much.
    I yield back.
    Chairman Thompson. The gentlelady's time has expired.
    Let me thank the witnesses. You have been excellent in your 
presentations.
    Climate change is real, it is not just for conversation. We 
can see it happening in our communities every day.
    But I also want to associate myself with the statements 
made by the Ranking Member relative to having some kind of 
review of how Jackson, Mississippi was treated by both the 
State and Federal agencies in the lack of funding. There is no 
question about it. The data will reflect what is and what is 
not. We look forward to having that review.
    The other thing is I represent a part of the country with 
significant rural water systems. One of the holy grails is to 
talk about do we merge them because they are too small. Most 
people would say, look, that is a no-brainer. You don't want to 
get run out of town, don't bring it up. Bring it up, you get 
run out of town. But there are some efficiencies that you just 
have to have. As either through technology or merger, you will 
have to have them. So I know for the rural water people who 
actually came in and helped an urban center in Jackson get its 
system back up to going, that response mechanism worked. But it 
is a matter of infrastructure investment.
    We just voted for a $1 trillion package that we put in 
place. The Ranking Member was one of the few people on the 
Republican side who voted for it. Last check, water is wet. 
Other than that, there is no party affiliation. So I really 
wish we could have gotten more support for it.
    Now, the question is whether or not that $1 trillion will 
be going to the communities who really need it the most or will 
it just, like all other monies, just get put in the pot and the 
haves get it and the have-nots don't. I hope we have a better 
solution to address that because we really need it.
    With respect to equity and FEMA, we are absolutely trying 
to move that conversation. I have had several communities 
recently flooded completely, but it didn't meet the damage 
threshold, but the good people of Rosedale, Mississippi, Mount 
Bayou, Mississippi, are some of the finest folk in the world 
and they deserve to be addressed in as helpful a manner as 
possible and not just told well the damage--you are not rich 
enough to be covered. We are a better country than that. If we 
were in Beverly Hills, California, one block would have 
qualified for a potential damage assessment because they are 
rich enough.
    So those are the public policy issues we are going to have 
to look at. Again, I thank our panelists for raising a lot of 
those issues that we have today. Unfunded mandates are a 
challenge, but some of what we do is in the good of the 
country. We just have to have them. This is where Congress 
takes the collective wisdom of the public before they decide on 
that public policy.
    I would also like to recognize Bill Simpson in the 
audience, who is a--I would call him an old friend, but I don't 
want to date him too much. But he is a good friend and works in 
the rural water community historically.
    So it is a good conversation we are having. Ms. Conner, I 
know you will do your best to help the people of Jackson. There 
are regulations that have to be followed. We need to make sure 
that as we send monies to communities, that those monies get to 
those communities and they not be penalized by any entity. So I 
look forward to the next step in that area.
    So let me thank the witnesses for their testimony and the 
Members for their questions.
    The Members of the committee may have additional questions 
for the witnesses and we ask you respond expeditiously in 
writing to those questions.
    The Chair reminds Members that the committee's record will 
remain open for 10 business days.
    Without objection, the committee stands adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 12:10 p.m., the committee was adjourned.]



                            A P P E N D I X

                              ----------                              

         Question From Honorable Dina Titus for W. Craig Fugate
    Question. You led FEMA during several notable emergencies. From 
your experience, what has changed or improved in our water 
infrastructure since the 5-year anniversary of these hurricanes? Are 
U.S. territories more or less prepared? How do you suggest that FEMA 
operationalize its Pre-Disaster Building Resilient Infrastructure and 
Communities (BRIC) Program to prioritize water infrastructure 
resilience against future climate emergencies?
    Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
      Question From Honorable Nanette Barragan for David L. Gadis
    Question. Congress has worked alongside the Biden administration to 
pass the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, to expand access to 
clean water, high-speed internet, and railroads. How will this 
increased funding help communities upgrade aging infrastructure in ways 
that meaningfully address preparedness and resilience?
    Answer. At DC Water, our tagline, ``Water is Life'', not only 
speaks to the core of our business, but is symbiotic of the life-giving 
and sustaining resource that we all need for survival and resilience. 
Ensuring that our county remains steadfast against incidents seen and 
unforeseen remains a top priority. To this end, the truth is, no 
community is resilient without safe, affordable, and accessible water.
    Modernizing and replacing the country's aging infrastructure is an 
increasingly important concern. This undoubtably includes the country's 
aging water and wastewater infrastructure. In fact, it has been said 
that ``adapting and improving infrastructure to meet changing climate, 
precipitation, and water use trends, may be the Nation's most glaring 
public works needs'' of this time. This is not intended as a scare 
tactic by any means, but it is an urgent call to the ``all-hands-on-
deck'' approaches to immediate solutions and results-driven approaches 
to ensure we are protecting and enhancing our communities most life-
sustaining commodity, water.
    The Biden-Harris administration has demonstrated an increased 
commitment to water infrastructure, and water utilities across the 
Nation's footprint couldn't be more grateful. Utilities small and large 
have already been helping communities adapt and manage the increasing 
needs and challenges that come with issues such as climate change, 
natural disasters, health pandemics, inflation, and all the other 
socio-economic ills, and DC Water is a National leader in many 
respects. What cannot be underscored, is every measure taken by the 
utility to continue to provide clean, safe, affordable, and accessible 
water requires costly investments. And, for all intents and purposes, 
these investments often have to be borne on the backs of already-
struggling communities. This is why the attention and help from the 
Federal Government is so paramount.
    DC Water has nearly a $7 billion-dollar planned CIP. What is 
nestled in this cost, are the projects and initiatives that will not 
only continue the level of service we have been able to provide for the 
past 25 years, but also fortify our communities for the next 25 and 
hopefully beyond. Projects such as our Clean River Project, an on-going 
effort to reduce combined sewer overflows (CSOs) to the District's 
waterways, our Lead-Free DC Program, established to eliminate all lead 
service lines in The District by 2030, our first-in-class Customer 
Service Programs, created to ensure we are able to meet customers where 
they are, regardless of where they happen to be, and our robust Cyber 
Security efforts which are on-going to ensure our infrastructure and 
the footprint we service is protected against attacks large and small--
each have a cost.
    These concerns are not new; however, they are growing. The utility 
has proven to be a responsible steward of the resources and support it 
has received up until now. What we ask, is for the increased support 
and partnership that will allow us to continue to do the work we do 
best.
         Question From Honorable Dina Titus for David L. Gadis
    Question. In your testimony you note that DC Water is a member of 
the Water Sector National Cyber Security Taskforce which fosters 
partnerships among the EPA, CISA, and the Water Sector Coordinating 
Council. As you describe it, it appears DC Water's cyber posture is 
more sophisticated than other water authorities.
    What lessons can be learned from the inter-agency partnerships that 
DC Water has been a part of? How can we use this as a model for the 
future of cybersecurity in the water sector?
    Answer. As mentioned in testimony, the primary mission at DC Water 
is to deliver clean, safe, and reliable drinking water to our 
residents. This includes protecting the water and wastewater 
infrastructure from potential threats, including physical and cyber 
attacks. While we may be leading in this effort, it cannot be 
underscored without coordination and inter-agency and interdisciplinary 
approaches of innovation.
    In fiscal year 2022 alone DC Water has been able to deploy the 
following cybersecurity measures:
   DC Water has implemented a ``Defense in Depth'' or layered 
        defense strategy using a Least Privileged access (access is 
        granted only to those systems/resources a user needs to perform 
        s/he's job) model.
   The Internet Layer strategy
     Web Access controls to prevents members from accessing 
            known malicious websites and downloading malicious files
   Email Cyber Protection (Scans for malicious logic, sender 
        reputation, data loss)
   The Network Layer strategy
     Geographic Filtering (Corporate Network)--Limits by 
            country where DC Water data and workloads can be accessed
     Firewall Protection
     Intrusion Detection and Prevention
     Network segmentation between
         Operational and Administrative Networks
         Critical system
         Production and non-Production Systems
     Weekly data backups
     Security Event and Incident Management (SEIM)
   The Host and User Layer strategy
     Annual Cyber Awareness training for all users including 
            contractors
     Multi-Factor Authentication for all administrator and 
            remote access and access to all high-risk assets
     Unique user-ids and password for each separate network
     Advance Threat and Malware protection on all host
     Spam filtering
     Scanning of email attachments and embedded URL rewrites 
            (also known as ``Click Protect'')
     Geographic Filtering (Host Layer)--Extends Geographic 
            Filtering to the remote member's managed desktop
     Data loss Protection
     USB controls
     Vulnerability Scanning
   Data Layer strategy
     Encrypted Databases
     Encrypted Email
     Encrypted Laptop Hard drives
   Mission Critical Resilience Capability
     Geographically separated Disaster Recovery site.
    Understanding that cybersecurity is a journey and not a 
destination, we take every measure to ensure we are working with our 
teams internal to the organization, as well as subject-matter experts 
external to our operations to deploy the most robust and up-to-date 
programs and practices to protect our infrastructure and our people.
          Questions From Honorable Dina Titus for Abre' Conner
    Question 1. I was pleased that the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) 
included $4 billion to specifically address the on-going drought crisis 
in the West. Ms. Conner, as the IRA funding gets authorized and 
distributed, how can we ensure that the Federal Government is working 
with our State and local partners to get this money to water 
infrastructure in underserved communities that already suffer 
disproportionately from the effects of climate change?
    Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
    Question 2. Are there examples you can think of where Federal 
funding streams effectively reached low-income communities? Can we 
learn any lessons from past funding allocations?
    Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.

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