The Impact Of Build America, Buy America Act On Emergency Pipe Repair

The Build America, Buy America Act (BABAA) requires that all federal financial assistance programs for infrastructure only use exclusively steel melted in the U.S. and iron that is poured in the U.S. In addition, it mandates that certain products are manufactured and assembled in the U.S. Unfortunately, guidelines on which products and what materials require certification have yet to be thoroughly defined.

Yet already these requirements have completely overwhelmed domestic suppliers and extended lead times on many standard products from weeks to months, and in some cases over a year. Custom parts and products are even scarcer, and many of these materials do not have certification that they were produced in the U.S. and haven’t been outside of the country.

Thankfully, there are several practical steps that the water and wastewater industry can use to mitigate the expected delays and increased costs being incurred by the BABAA and its disruption of the supply chain.