The Clean Water Council's (CWC) Sudden Impact Report is an Assessment of Short-Term Economic Impacts of Water and Wastewater Construction Projects in the United States. This resource has been so valuable when talking to our legislators at both the state and federal level. New Mexico's construction industry has been hit hard by the recession and is not bouncing back as quickly or as strongly as our surrounding states. Results and Analysis Of the CWC's study specifically for New Mexico resulted in the following:

•  An investment of $1 billion in New Mexico's water and wastewater infrastructure would result in an estimated $1.7 to 2 billion demand for good and services across the state's economy.
•  Industries that provide goods and services in support of infrastructure projects would experience almost $390 million in goods and services as households spend money in the economy.
•  15,329 to 20,901 jobs would be created with 6,000 occurring in sectors other than water and wastewater construction and more then 9,000 jobs would be in the pipe construction sector where earnings average $40,930.

Analysis-The CWC analyzed data from 18 completed projects in New Mexico that ranged in size from $120,000 to $9.2 million and covered 10 counties. --A $2.6 million project to install new water and sewer lines in Dona Ana County illustrates the local economic impacts of these investments. Altogether the infrastructure investment resulted in slightly less than $4 million in demand for products and services. In addition to the $2.6 million investment for the water and sewer lines, about $730,000 were spent on supplies and services necessary to complete such work. Re-spending of income resulted in another $610,000 in local economic demand as households paid for goods and services ranging from rent, motor vehicles, gas, etc. More than 40 jobs were created, including an estimated 27 in water pipe construction sector and another 15 across other economic sectors. An estimated $1.3 million in employee compensation derived from the initial $2.6 million investment and state and local tax revenues were affected an estimated $80,000. More analysis is available and listed by project; if you would like more information, contact Jane at NUCA of NM.

NUCA of NM continually puts forth effort to increase and sustain infrastructure funding in New Mexico and the United States. One of the main purposes of traveling to Washington D.C. each year is to educate our lawmakers on the needs of the infrastructure industry and the benefits of investing in it. Each year funding is slashed and the gap between needs and available resources widens.

Lifting the cap on Private Activity Bonds (PAB) and encouraging the use of Public Private Partnerships (P3) are two initiatives that NUCA of NM is pushing at both the state and federal level. These two initiatives have the potential to increase funding into our industry going into the future. (Waste Management lifted the cap on PAB's over 10 years ago and has enjoyed increased funding and was the ONLY industry to score higher than a C on the 2013 ASCE Infrastructure Score Card).  The P3 legislation passed the NM House last year but ran out of time to cycle through the Senate side; because of this, proponents, including NUCA of NM, have been meeting with and presenting information to legislators to increase the probability of passage in the 2014 Legislative Session.