Guam - Now that the Draft Environmental Impact Statement out, the Guam Waterworks Authority says there is some fresh momentum behind the hundreds of millions of dollars in projects the agency has slated to ensure island residents will have adequate water resources available to them with a population boom just around the corner.

GWA Spokesperson Heidi Ballendorf insists that GWA has a lot on its plate with its $900 million master plan adopted by the agency in 2006.  "But of course, the military build up has sped up these projects so that is really what this has done for us. When we look at going forward in the next year to eighteen months, we do have plans to go out to the bond market and get about $300 million in financing, I think the community is aware of that."

Ballendorf says GWA will get about $300 million in financing, which will produce about $225 million in projects that she calls "in the ground projects," adding that approximately $145 million of that $300 million will go toward improving water pressure, and water distribution.