Explaining State Allocation Shares Under the Water Quality Act of 1987: Politics, Incrementalism, or Need?

The article examines the basis for the allocation of federal funding for wastewater treatment infrastructure under the Water Quality Act (WQA) of 1987, which replaced the previous Clean Water Act (CWA) grant program with a state-administered revolving loan fund model. Unlike earlier transparent allocation formulas based on state population and water quality needs, the 1987 WQA included a fixed allocation table with undisclosed methodology, introducing minimum funding shares that primarily benefited small-population states. Through regression analysis, the study finds that incrementalism best explains the 1987 allocations, with small states receiving disproportionately higher shares, while committee membership and partisanship had no significant effect. The findings highlight the opaque political bargaining behind the funding formula and underscore the importance of revisiting allocation methods as state populations and water quality needs have shifted substantially since 1987.