S4949-119

What This Bill Does

The Water Resources Development Act of 2026 combines a nationwide Army Corps of Engineers authorization package with a four-year reauthorization of major Environmental Protection Agency water programs. For Corps projects, it requires an implementation plan and recurring congressional briefings, accelerates responses to congressional requests, delegates many continuing-authority study decisions to district commanders, and requires simplified study procedures. Projects under continuing-authority or environmental-infrastructure programs with a federal share of no more than $50 million would receive a categorical exclusion from environmental-assessment and environmental-impact-statement requirements.

The Corps generally could not pause, terminate, or defer an authorized study or project that Congress funded, except for specified cost, sponsor-capacity, court-order, settlement, or sponsor-request circumstances. District engineers would provide schedules, spending records, and recurring status notices to nonfederal sponsors. Navigation sponsors could perform operation and maintenance work, receive construction-cost credit up to 20 percent, and obtain reimbursement subject to annual caps of $10 million per sponsor and $30 million in total. The bill also directs more coordination on dredging and establishes voluntary, phased approaches for nonstructural flood-risk projects.

The measure authorizes dozens of new feasibility studies, expedites existing studies and construction activities, requires GAO and Corps reports, adds or increases local environmental-infrastructure authorizations, modifies federal cost shares, deauthorizes selected project segments, and authorizes projects recommended in Chief of Engineers reports. These provisions cover flood control, coastal-storm protection, navigation, ecosystem restoration, water supply, dam safety, dredging, and recreation projects across many States.

For drinking water, the bill authorizes Drinking Water State Revolving Fund amounts rising from $3.75 billion in fiscal year 2027 to $4.5 billion in 2030 and expands eligible uses to PFAS and other emerging contaminants, lead service lines, and qualifying wildfire-suppression projects. It authorizes $140 million annually for small and disadvantaged community assistance, $100 million annually for lead reduction, $50 million annually for small-system sustainability, $40 million annually for midsize and large system resilience, $50 million annually for school and child-care lead grants, and $75 million annually for the Indian Reservation Drinking Water Program. It creates a $15 million annual digital-infrastructure grant program for rural water systems and a $10 million annual point-of-use filter pilot for communities facing lead, PFAS, or other contaminant exceedances.

For clean water, it authorizes $3.5 billion annually for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund through 2030 and makes emerging-contaminant projects eligible. It continues annual authorizations of $280 million for sewer-overflow and stormwater grants, $50 million for decentralized wastewater systems serving low- or moderate-income households, $60 million for rural and Native Alaska sanitation, and $65 million for WIFIA administration. It also funds water research, workforce and cybersecurity training, aquifer recharge, and regional restoration programs, including $475 million annually for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and a new $7.5 million annual Southeast New England grant program.

The EPA division further establishes a $10 million annual water-sector threat-information and cybersecurity program, extends plastic-waste authorities, requires a microplastics technology study, and directs EPA to create regulatory exemptions allowing qualifying nonpotable aquifers to be used for Class VI carbon-dioxide injection wells.

Who Benefits and How

State, local, and Tribal water agencies gain access to renewed loans, grants, technical assistance, and broader eligible uses. Rural systems, disadvantaged communities, schools, child-care providers, households facing contaminated water, and Native villages receive targeted infrastructure or filtration support. Nonfederal Corps sponsors gain faster studies, more predictable schedules, cost credit and reimbursement, additional federal cost sharing, and less environmental-review process for qualifying projects. Ports, commercial waterway users, flood-prone communities, engineering firms, construction contractors, researchers, and environmental-restoration organizations benefit from new or accelerated projects and program funding.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Federal taxpayers bear the cost of the new and extended authorizations. The Army Corps, EPA, GAO, and other implementing bodies must issue guidance, manage grants, conduct studies, keep project schedules moving, coordinate with sponsors, and provide recurring reports and briefings. State and local recipients still must satisfy eligibility, application, cost-share, and project-management conditions. Communities near projects qualifying for the new categorical exclusion receive less project-specific NEPA analysis, creating uncertainty about how fully local environmental risks will be examined. Class VI well operators receive regulatory relief, while nearby communities face uncertain groundwater-protection risk from the mandated exemption.

Key Provisions

• Delegates and streamlines Corps continuing-authority project reviews.
• Exempts qualifying sub-$50 million Corps projects from NEPA assessment documents.
• Requires funded Corps projects to continue absent specified exceptions and mandates sponsor notices.
• Authorizes credit and capped reimbursement for sponsor-performed navigation maintenance.
• Authorizes and accelerates Corps studies, local infrastructure projects, and project modifications.
• Reauthorizes Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Fund programs through 2030.
• Expands water funding to PFAS, lead-line, wildfire, cybersecurity, and digital-system projects.
• Creates filtration, Southeast New England restoration, and water-sector cybersecurity programs.
• Reauthorizes Great Lakes, estuary, Long Island Sound, Columbia River, and Lake Champlain programs.
• Requires EPA rules allowing qualifying nonpotable aquifers to host Class VI injection wells.