Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendment
FEDERAL WATER POLLUTION CONTROL ACT AMENDMENT -- (House of Representatives - December 07, 2005)
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, as one of the original authors of the BEACH Act five years ago, I rise in support of H.R. 1721 and thank my friend from New York, Mr. BISHOP, for working to move this legislation forward.
The BEACH Act of 2000 took major steps towards improving water quality testing and monitoring at beaches across the country, which is critical to protecting the health of beachgoers. The Act had three provisions: requiring states to adopt current EPA water quality criteria to protect beachgoers from getting sick; requiring the EPA to update these water quality criteria, developed in 1986, with new science and technologies to provide better, faster water testing; and providing grants to states to implement coastal water monitoring programs.
The bill before us extends the authorization for appropriations under this third provision, which expired at the end of this fiscal year, until 2011. This is an important step because every coastal state now has a beach water monitoring program that relies on federal grant funding. However, we need to realize that there are still outstanding issues in the implementation of the other portions of the BEACH Act that merit Congressional involvement.
In particular, EPA was to have completed new water quality criteria by October of this year to make sure that all Americans can feel safe swimming at the beach without worrying that they will get sick. My office has spoken extensively with EPA about this, however, and it seems that this will likely not be completed until 2011. EPA is spending nearly a decade studying water testing methods, waiting to collect data on freshwater beaches before even beginning to test marine beaches.
This delay, likely due at least in part to insufficient funding from the Administration and this Congress, has prevented EPA from helping communities implement rapid water testing methods that could shorten the time for beginning and ending beach closures from two days to merely a few hours. Such an improvement would provide much greater protection to beachgoers and help shore economies by avoiding unnecessary closures.
I intend to work with my colleagues here and with EPA to improve the implementation of the original BEACH Act and keep our coastal waters as clean as possible. In the meantime, I am pleased to see the House extend the grants program through this bill.
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