President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act about 7 months ago, and the Environmental Protection Agency has already allocated 92% of the Recovery Act budget. A large part of that money will be used for water quality, wastewater infrastructure and drinking water infrastructure improvement projects as Triple Pundit reports. $4 billion is going to be spent in assisting communities with water quality and wastewater infrastructure needs and $2 billion will go towards drinking water infrastructure. A percentage of the funding will be channelled towards green infrastructure, water and energy efficiency, and green innovation.
EPA just inaugurated water-related projects that promise to create jobs, including a harbor cleanup in New Bedford, Mass. (270 jobs) and a Superfund cleanup project (more than 200 jobs) at the Iron Mountain Mine in Redding, California that discharged toxics into the Sacramento River. The local hydroelectric power plant will use the restored waters to produce energy when the projects are completed. Additionally, President Obama is requesting $475 million in next year’s budget for cleaning up the Great Lakes—and this would be just a small part of the funding for the restoration of the Great Lakes.
Apparently there is (and there will be) a growing demand for people who can set up water reclamation systems or develop water conservation tactics, just to name a few skills. But these jobs usually tend to require highly specialized training but we still can’t see enough water-related green jobs training being offered.
Read the entire article here.
888 Station Street
Herndon, VA 20170
info@sustainabilityconsulting.com
Sustainability for Every Company.