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Miller Announces Millions in Federal Funding for Area projects

Washington, DC – The House of Representatives today approved $14.5 million in funding for critical projects in the congressional district represented by Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) as part of a larger bill that funds the federal government for the rest of the year, Miller announced. The bill is expected to be passed by the Senate next week and signed into law by President Obama soon.

This bill is separate from the Economic Recovery Act signed into law last week by President Obama that will also send needed funds into the Bay Area and the state in response to the recession.

With this bill,” Miller said, “Congress is investing in key priorities for the Bay Area and California, in education, environmental restoration, transportation and other programs that will create jobs at home and continue services vital to our community. I am proud to have been able to secure funding in the overall bill for critical services that will directly help my constituents in cities throughout Contra Costa and Solano counties.”

Miller highlighted three items in the bill in particular that won important funding for local services: $1.6 million for after-school programs for middle and high school students, giving them new opportunities and important skills; $1.8 million for new environmentally friendly busses and park and ride lots; and, over $8 million for Bay Area Water Recycling projects to provide the region a reliable water supply for years to come as drought and climate change make California's water supply increasingly unpredictable.

Below is a complete list of funding Miller helped to secure in the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009:

$600,000 for Shotspotter in the City of Richmond
The Richmond Police Department will receive funding for the Shotspotter Gunshot Location System. Richmond Police believe the system provides significant help in the fight against illegal firearms use.

$250,000 for the Richmond Black Firefighters' Association's Richmond Youth Academy
The Richmond Fire Department Youth Academy serves at-risk youth. The Academy enrolls cadets ages14-18 in a ten-month program to participate in training and preparation for a career in fire-fighting. Classes focus on tutoring, computer literacy, safety training, emergency preparation and life skills.

$400,000 for the Richmond Police Activities League's One-Stop Youth Center
The Richmond Police Activities League One-Stop Youth Center provides a safe environment for youth to congregate after school. The Center successfully focuses on meeting the developmental needs of young people through academic and employment services, mentoring programs, and recreational activities.

$150,000 for work on Shipyard 3 Historic District, part of Rosie the Riveter Historic Park in Richmond
This project would rehabilitate one of the five surviving original buildings of Shipyard 3, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which is located within the Rosie the Riveter World War II/Home Front National Historical Park. Funding will be used to rehabilitate the Rigger’s Loft/Paint Shop/Sheet Metal Shop/Electrical Shop.

$500,000 for Mare Island Sanitary Sewer and Storm Drain
The current Mare Island sanitary sewer and storm drain system evolved from a system built in the 1800’s and is in a severely degraded condition. Federal funding is needed to help replace the existing sanitary sewer pipes and expand the storm water drainage system to improve the overall water quality of the region.

$670,000 for the cleanup efforts at the Mount Diablo Mercury Mine
Reps. Miller, Tauscher (D-Alamo) and McNerney (D-Tracy) sought this funding together. The money would allow Contra Costa County to complete the preliminary design and planning studies for a project that will dramatically reduce levels of mercury washed into the San Francisco Bay and should help improve health and safety throughout the watershed.

$1,000,000 for the Los Vaqueros Reservoir Expansion
Reps. Miller, Tauscher (D-Alamo) and McNerney (D-Tracy) also secured $1 million for the further study of the expansion of the Los Vaqueros Reservoir. The reservoir expansion is currently being evaluated to develop water supplies for environmental water management. Expanding the reservoir would immediately begin addressing some of the environmental, water supply, and water quality challenges central to the ongoing Delta crisis.

$333,000 for the Fighting Back Partnership, Vallejo
Funding will go toward an intervention program that targets elementary and high school students who are at risk for substance abuse and misuse, and who attend eight of Vallejo’s most socially and economically impoverished schools (four elementary and four high schools). Vallejo FAST is designed to increase protective factors such as increased family functioning and attachment to school.

$119,000 for the Solano County Mommy Coach
Solano County’s Mommy Coach Project is designed to support women with pre-natal, pregnancy, and post-partum issues through the building of relationships with other experienced women from similar backgrounds. The program’s goal is to help families avoid costly healthcare problems for mothers and infants, emotional problems for overwhelmed mothers, and child welfare issues for entire families.

$143,000 For the YMCA’s Building Blocks for Kids
The YMCA’s program conducts outreach, workshops, parent-student training, after-school activities and other interventions proven effective in combating early alcohol and drug use among adolescents.

$428,000 for the CCC’s Children of Domestic Violence Program
Sen. Boxer and Reps Miller, Tauscher (D-Alamo) and McNerney (D-Tracy) requested funds for the implementation of a plan to diminish the damaging effects of domestic violence on children and adolescents and to stop the cycle of intentional injury and abuse.

$760,000 for Solano County, Alternative Fuel Buses Program
Reps. Miller and Tauscher requested funds for the Solano Transportation Authority to replace current diesel buses with alternative fuel buses. This will be a key step toward replacing the remaining diesel fleet. The new busses will produce lower amounts of air emissions, including both CO2 and soot, and the transit services provided will reduce the number of cars on the road, further reducing air emissions.

$470,000 for the Intermodal Station, Vacaville
The Vacaville Intermodal Station will streamline express bus service along the I-80 corridor, provide efficient connections to local bus service, and help to expand ridership along the I-80 corridor toward the Bay Area and the Sacramento regions.

$641,000 TriDelta Transit Park and Ride Lots
Funds for the project will allow the Eastern Contra Costa Transit Authority to develop two 1.5 acre park and ride lots in the areas of Pittsburg and Antioch. The project will reduce Highway 4 traffic congestion by providing commuters with a base to use mass transit.

$8,000,000 for Bay Area Water Recycling Projects, Pittsburg and other cities
Reps. Miller, Eshoo (D-Palo Alto) and Tauscher (D-Alamo) requested funding for the Bay Area Regional Water Recycling Program that will allow the region's water agencies to reuse treated water, helping to preserve drinking water supplies and to protect the Bay-Delta ecosystem. Under a law authored by Rep. Miller in 2008, cities like Pittsburg can receive federal funding to use recycled water – rather than fresh water from the Delta – at city parks, golf courses, and other green spaces.

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Miller speaks in favor of Appropriations Act debated by house today

The Hon. George Miller
February 25, 2009
Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Omnibus Appropriations Act.

The legislation before us today invests in key priorities for our country from energy to education, and will help address critical needs that were ignored under the previous Administration.

In addition to all of the other important work that this Omnibus Appropriations Act will do alongside the Recovery Act to make our economy stronger, I want to call special attention to the work this legislation will do to respond to the serious drought that we face in California.

The bill before us today provides significant funding for the federal water reclamation and reuse program administered by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. That program, known as Title XVI, helps local water managers to treat wastewater and use the clean water that results for commercial irrigation and industrial processes. Under Title XVI, the federal investment in water recycling is matched many times over by monies from state and local agencies, so it’s not only environmentally sustainable, it’s cost-effective.

The Title XVI funding in today’s bill builds on the historic investment in the program that was contained in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. I am hopeful that this important program will continue to thrive under President Obama and Secretary Salazar.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, including in Pittsburg in my congressional district, water managers have put together a regional planning effort to invest in water recycling infrastructure. This bill bolsters that regional cooperative effort by providing $8 million for the Bay Area Regional Water Recycling Program. On behalf of my constituents and the communities around our region, I want to sincerely thank Chairman Obey, Chairman Visclosky, Ranking Members Lewis and Frelinghuysen, and especially the Committee staff, for their support for this important funding. The funds will quickly create and sustain jobs, and will provide a reliable water supply for local planners and residents.

I look forward to working with the Bureau of Reclamation to ensure that they expeditiously enter into individual agreements with the local implementing agencies so that the Bay Area projects are quickly funded through the Bay Area Clean Water Agencies or its successor. I also know that some of the local water agencies in the Bay Area had to begin their projects before this bill was completed so that they did not lose their state and local funding matches. It is my understanding that the authorized federal funding may be used for reimbursement of construction costs already underway and carried out. As the Bureau works with the local agencies to disburse the funding in this bill, those agreements should provide for reimbursement of the projects’ construction costs as necessary.

I strongly support the FY 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

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House Approves Major Investment in Water Recycling

House Approves Major Investment in Water Recycling
Drought-hit California can receive funding for innovative water projects

A historic investment in alternative water supplies for California and across the West was approved by the House today as part of President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The water recycling provision includes an unprecedented $126 million for the federal water recycling and reuse program administered by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. By contrast, President Bush budgeted only $7 million for this crucial infrastructure investment.

That water reuse program, also know as Title XVI, helps local water managers to treat wastewater and use the clean water that results for commercial irrigation and industrial processes. Water recycling allows drought-prone cities and regions to use innovative techniques to build more-reliable and cost-effective water supplies.

“Approval of President Obama’s economic recovery package is critical to turning around America’s economy,” said Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), a long-time advocate of environmentally sustainable water policy. “With this historic investment in water recycling, we will not only be creating good jobs in California, we will be drought-proofing our communities at a time when they most need the assistance.

“As we all know, drought and climate change will continue to reduce the amount of water available from the Bay-Delta, but supporting this legislation means supporting cost-effective and sustainable alternative water supplies for California. Recycled water provides a reliable supply for local planners and residents, and that means jobs, security, and prosperity.”

The $126 million contained in the legislation is the highest single amount ever provided to the Title XVI program, and will allow municipalities and water agencies around the San Francisco Bay Area and across California – and in many more locations throughout the arid West including Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Phoenix, and El Paso – to invest in these new water supply projects.

The Bay Area Recycled Water Coalition, which undertaken a regional planning effort to invest in water reuse and recycling planning to mitigate against drought, has estimated that investing in the ready-to-go recycled water projects in the Bay-Delta region alone can support nearly 20,000 jobs in fields like engineering, construction, and manufacturing.

In Pittsburg, California the Delta Diablo Sanitation District could use this influx of federal funding to expand its existing recycled water project so that the region can serve city parks with clean recycled water, rather than using drinking water for irrigation purposes. The Coalition has identified cost-effective and environmentally friendly water recycling projects around the Bay that could supply over 87,000 acre-feet of water. An acre-foot of water is about 326,000 gallons.

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