Contact: Regina Davis, 202-898-9382, rdavis@naruc.org

NARUC Reminds the Nation to ‘Imagine a Day without Water’

Washington (October 23, 2019) —The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners is reminding the nation of the grave water infrastructure crisis in the United States. In letters to the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, NARUC asks Congress and the Administration to prioritize investment in water infrastructure and resources.

NARUC, along with a host of elected officials, drinking water and wastewater providers, community leaders, business and labor groups, policy experts, advocacy organizations and infrastructure, is participating in the annual Imagine a Day Without Water awareness campaign, designated this year for October 23, 2019. Organized by the Value of Water Coalition, the campaign’s goal is to educate the public on the U.S. water infrastructure crisis, which disrupts daily lives, threatens jobs and businesses and puts our communities’ health and prosperity at risk.

As noted in the letters, every community, every person, every business, every child relies on water. Agriculture, energy, manufacturing, and tourism—more than one fifth of our nation’s economic output depends on water. Also, more than $220 billion in economic activity could be gained nationwide by closing the water infrastructure investment gap. This year, the American Society for Civil Engineers again gave the U.S. drinking water and wastewater system infrastructure a grade of D.

Co-signed by NARUC President Nick Wagner of Iowa and New Jersey Commissioner Mary-Anna Holden, chair of NARUC’s Committee on Water, the letters are available on NARUC’s website at bit.ly/NARUCWaterH2019 (House) and bit.ly/NARUCWaterS2019 (Senate). For more information on the value of water and to learn how to participate in the campaign, visit http://imagineadaywithoutwater.org/. Follow NARUC’s social media engagement using the hashtag #ValueWater.

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About NARUC

NARUC is a non-profit organization founded in 1889 whose members include the governmental agencies that are engaged in the regulation of utilities and carriers in the fifty States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. NARUC's member agencies regulate telecommunications, energy, and water utilities. NARUC represents the interests of State public utility commissions before the three branches of the Federal government.