As August is Water Quality Month, I want to follow up on a previous issue I discussed some time ago. For over 15 years, the development of our nation's roads and bridges has relied on a federal funding program administered through the Federal Highway Administration. Known as the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act(TIFIA), this program has helped numerous transportation-related public-private partnerships gain traction.

By contrast, our nation's water and water resource infrastructure has relied predominantly on local, regional, and "service area-level" funding. When larger, more regional water resource projects are needed, federal funding has been obtained through either the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) or direct "earmarks," both of which are administered through Congress and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). As of now, the Senate has passed its version of WRDA re-authorization, but Congress has yet to take action; and as many of you are aware, the days of substantive earmarks are now well behind us.

Whether we realize it or not, we have become dependent on WRDA (and until recently, earmarks) to close the funding gaps on some of the largest water resource improvement projects in the nation. These levees, dams, surface water impoundments, and other important projects not only increase and secure our drinkable water supplies, but also improve our water quality standards. Unfortunately, and unlike TIFIA, this funding process by and large does not lend itself to private-sector innovation.

Enter WIFIA, the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 2012.

At this time, WIFIA operates as a pilot-program administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) instead of USACE. Under this pilot program, the EPA is responsible for allocating up to $100 million annually to qualifying water resource-related projects, and like TIFIA, is intended to generate public-private partnerships. WIFIA is not intended to supplant other forms of local, regional or state funding, but rather allow private-sector innovation to take root. By definition, it is intended to foster creative, innovative methods for making our waterways and water supplies cleaner, while creating new ways of treating our water that might ultimately provide additional fresh drinking water supplies.

In my view, WIFIA is the most important new program for enhancing our nation's water resources and water supplies since the advent of WRDA. As I mentioned, WIFIA would fund only $100 million annually in its current pilot-program form, which represents only a fraction of the hundreds of billions of dollars our water infrastructure leaders say is needed. However, if properly administered, WIFIA could prove to be as important to us over the next 15 years as TIFIA has been over the last 15.