Healthy Communities Water Supply Act of 2007
Floor Speech
HEALTHY COMMUNITIES WATER SUPPLY ACT OF 2007
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Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise in support of H.R. 700, the Healthy Communities Water Supply Act of 2007. I want to thank the chairwoman and the ranking member, Mr. Baker, for their hard work on this particular bill.
H.R. 700 extends the pilot program under the Clean Water Act for alternative water source projects.
Growth in population, increasing demands for water, and drought are resulting in water shortages in many areas around our Nation, both in the west and the east.
Many communities are finding that their water supply needs cannot be met by existing water supplies. As a result, many communities and their water resource development agencies are looking at alternative ways to alleviate their water shortages and enhance water supplies to meet their future water needs.
This is an important issue not only for my home State of Arkansas but for the many other parts of the country facing increasing demands for water.
Adequate water is needed to sustain our country's economic growth and viability. Some of the approaches they are looking at involve reclaiming, reusing or conserving water that has already been used.
H.R. 700 provides an authority to help communities meet some of their critical water supply needs through water reclamation, reuse, conservation and management.
H.R. 700 authorizes $125 billion for the EPA to make grants to water resource development agencies for these sorts of alternative water source projects. The program leverages non-Federal resources by requiring a non-Federal cash of 50 percent.
I urge all Members to support this important bill.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. Chairman, again, I rise to support this bill, very much so. I want to thank Chairman Oberstar, Chairman Johnson, Ranking Member Mica and Ranking Member Baker and their staffs for their hard work and the efforts that they put into this.
Again, I would urge my colleagues to support passage of this bill.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
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