Beach Protection Act of 2007
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
MS. RICHARDSON. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the substitute amendment offered by the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kirk). The substitute amendment directs the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to review existing monitoring protocols for mercury in the recreational waters of the Great Lakes and to make recommendations on their potential revision.
As the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment learned at a hearing early last year, mercury is a significant concern in a majority of the United States. For example, according to EPA, 44 States have fish consumption advisories for mercury. More telling, the entirety of the Great Lakes basin is currently under a fish advisory for toxic chemicals, including the presence of mercury.
I applaud the actions of the gentleman from Illinois to bring greater attention to the threat of mercury contamination. Given what we have known about the health impacts of mercury, a mercury advisory in today's day and age is wrong and it needs to be addressed.
This substitute amendment will require the administrator to review and where necessary revise and monitor protocols for detecting the presence of mercury. The amendment directs the administrator to pay particular attention to the presence of mercury in the sediment of the Great Lakes and the fish tissues.
In addition, this amendment provides an additional authorization of appropriations for this review and update. Funding for this study is not authorized from funds made available under section 406(i) for implementation of monitoring and notification programs by State and local governments, nor from EPA funding to implement the BEACH program.
Finally, this amendment includes a savings clause that insures that this additional study will not delay EPA's ongoing efforts to publish new or revised water quality criteria as required by Section 304(a)(9) of the Clean Water Act.
I support the substitute amendment, and urge my colleagues to support this amendment.
I yield back the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. RICHARDSON. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Amendment No. 11 offered by Ms. Richardson:
At the end of the bill, add the following:
SEC. 11. NATIONAL LIST OF BEACHES.
Section 406(g)(3) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1346(g)(3)) is amended by striking ``The Administrator'' and all that follows through the period and inserting ``Within 12 months after the date of the enactment of the Beach Protection Act of 2008, and biennially thereafter, the Administrator shall update the list described in paragraph (1).''
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The gentlewoman from California is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. RICHARDSON. Mr. Chairman, when Congress passed the BEACH Act in 2000, it took an important step towards keeping Americans, of which a large majority are ill-prepared children, away from polluted beaches. As a proud Californian, I understand how critical clean and safe beaches are to our State's health, identity and economy. As with airplanes or even drinking water, Americans trust our government to alert them in the event of a safety concern.
I thank Chairman Oberstar, and also our great subcommittee chairwoman, Ms. Johnson from Texas, for shepherding this important public health and safety bill to the House floor.
This is a vital reauthorization that includes an expansion of the BEACH program by increasing the authorization level by $10 million. This program is most effective when properly administered if the program maintains adequate funding levels and a product result that demonstrates that the resources are well utilized.
The Environmental Protection Agency reported that States significantly increased the number of beaches they monitored from approximately 1,000 in 1997 to more than 3,500 in 2004. There are over 6,099 beaches nationwide.
When the EPA became lenient in the beach monitoring back in 2006, the Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit against the EPA to protect our public health concerns. Ongoing or periodic monitoring is crucial to maintaining a safe environment.
In my area alone, in Los Angeles County, beach closings due to hazardous bacterial contamination dramatically jumped 15 percent in 2005. During the course of that year, beaches nationwide were closed or posted with health advisories 20,000 times.
Providing sufficient funding to the EPA for testing is only one part of this equation, however. To ensure the American public receives this beach quality information, Congress must compel the EPA to publish comprehensive results that are easily accessible on-line.
This amendment will reinstitute the requirement from the original BEACH Act that would enable the EPA to publish a complete list of every public beach, whether or not it is monitored or not. The EPA's 2004 ``National List of Beaches'' was an important resource for beachgoers, and this amendment will ensure that the EPA updates and maintains the list every 2 years for the safety of all Americans and visitors alike.
Families, fishermen and sports enthusiasts deserve to know whether the EPA is fulfilling its obligation to protect our community beaches. The Richardson amendment will make sure that this happens.
I urge all of my colleagues to support this nonpartisan amendment.
I yield back the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Madam Chairman, I move to strike the last word.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The gentlewoman from California is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. RICHARDSON. I rise in support of this amendment. Mr. Inslee's amendment calls for the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a study on the long-term impact of climate change on pollution of coastal recreational waters. The study would include information on the potential contaminant impacts on ground and surface water resources, as well as the impacts on ecosystems and public health in coastal communities like mine.
The amendment also requires the report to highlight necessary Federal actions to help advance the availability of information and tools to assess and mitigate effects in order to protect our public and the ecosystem's health.
Our coastal waters are hubs of recreation and commerce for all of our Nation's individuals. It is with this in mind that the original BEACH Act was passed. We can expect many changes to occur in a warming world. Amongst these there will be, and it should be no surprise, that changes to our temperature and chemistry of our beaches in coastal waters have already gone into effect. Especially because so many children recreate in these waters, it is imperative to determine whether the contamination that already exists will become more hazardous to the health of our beach users.
I encourage my fellow Members to join with me in support of Mr. Inslee's amendment.
I yield back the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. RICHARDSON. Madam Chairman, will the gentlewoman yield?
Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. I yield to the gentlewoman from California.
Ms. RICHARDSON. Madam Chairman, I understand that the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. McCarthy) will be withdrawing this amendment, but I commend her consideration of this very pressing matter. And it is one that I look forward to working with her on in the future.
Since at least 2002, we've known that a wide variety of chemicals, including pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and others such as fire retardants, are ending up in our Nation's water as you just expressed. More recently, the Associated Press found that the drinking water supplies of 24 of 28 municipalities tested had pharmaceuticals present. While the levels of these largely unregulated chemicals are low, their presence raises a number of troubling issues such as the long-term human health impacts on adults and any different impacts on children.
It is fair to ask how do these pollutants get into our streams and drinking water supplies in the first place. I understand that the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment may further this issue over the upcoming months and examine it in great detail with you.
I look forward to working with the gentlewoman from New York and other Members who have raised concerns about these reports on pharmaceuticals and other chemicals in our Nation's water.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source