[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 61 (Tuesday, May 17, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               SAFE DRINKING WATER ACT AMENDMENTS OF 1994

  The Senate continued with the consideration of the bill.
  Mr. BINGAMAN addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.
  Mr. BINGAMAN. Madam President, I rise to speak about an issue that I 
spoke about last Monday here on the Senate floor--a little over a week 
ago. The issue deals with the substandard, mostly rural, subdivisions 
along the United States-Mexico border called colonias.
  This is an issue that the Senator from Arizona addressed earlier and 
we had a vote on here in the Senate. Colonias came into existence when 
developers sold families coming across the border small, unimproved 
lots with the promise that water, sewer, and other services would soon 
follow. These basic infrastructure needs did not follow, resulting in 
communities that resemble those in developing countries.
  In my home State of New Mexico, we have approximately 14 colonias 
located near Las Cruces. Those 14 colonias contain about 16,000 people. 
I visited several of these colonias. I have seen the families coping 
with conditions that most of us would have difficulty believing--
unfinished cinder block homes with sewage pipes not connected to 
anything, dumping directly into open ditches. Children who play in 
these polluted ditches are plagued by serious, debilitating illnesses 
such as hepatitis and intestinal infections, stomach disorders, and 
low-grade fevers.
  It is hard to believe that in this country we have people living 
under these circumstances.
  Madam President, I want to share several pictures with colleagues 
this evening, to show the kind of conditions that we find in these 
colonias. I particularly thank Congressman Coleman of El Paso for 
providing these images, and especially for his leadership and support 
in the House in addressing the issue.
  Let me very briefly run through these. This first picture is an open 
ditch next to an area where household waste is being dumped, including 
soiled diapers. Clearly, this is the kind of circumstance we find in 
most of these colonias.
  This next photograph is a typical pump used by colonias residents to 
extract ground water for bathing and washing dishes and, in some cases, 
drinking.
  This next one is a warning label which has been put on drinking water 
in the colonias in question here, indicating that ``this water is 
unsafe.''
  This next one shows an open ditch which serves as a family toilet.
  So the extent of the problem is clear.
  This final photograph shows open ditches and drains that are common 
in all of these colonias. These untreated sludge pits are the ideal 
breeding grounds for disease-ridden rodents and larvae, which spread 
illness throughout the community.
  Madam President, the situation that I have described and that these 
pictures depict is not unique to New Mexico. All of the border States--
New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Texas--are all desperately trying 
to deal with these impoverished communities.
  My colleague, Senator Hutchison, is also concerned about the issue, 
especially in her State of Texas. Last Tuesday, the Water and Power 
Subcommittee of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a 
hearing where EPA representatives and others discussed the importance 
of providing assistance to these colonias. Senator Hutchison testified 
at that hearing, and State representatives specifically stated the 
importance of passing legislation that would authorize grants to 
colonias for water infrastructure needs.
  In fiscal year 1994, the President requested $58 million dollars for 
Mexico border projects. While this funding was not appropriated, the 
Congress did appropriate $500 million to assist hardship communities, 
which has been referred to several times during the debate on this 
bill. This funding is to become available following enactment of 
authorizing legislation. In response to the problem, I introduced the 
amendment in question, along with Senator Hutchison, as an amendment to 
the Safe Drinking Water Act. This is exactly the bill that I introduced 
earlier as Senate bill 1286, the Colonias Wastewater Treatment Act.
  The amendment would authorize the administrator of the EPA to provide 
funds for States for grants to colonias for water supply and wastewater 
treatment works. Grants would include planning, design, and 
construction of water supply, and wastewater treatment. The eligible 
communities would be those along the border.
  Madam President, it is critical that we find a way to authorize this 
funding this year. I believe the best vehicle that is available at this 
time, of course, is the Safe Drinking Water Act.
  I know Senator Hutchison wishes to comment also on the legislation, 
and she is probably on her way to the floor. Let me see if the chairman 
of the committee could give a reaction as to the appropriateness of us 
pursuing this legislation as an amendment on this bill. I have not 
called the amendment up yet, but it is on file at the desk. I am 
anxious to know whether the Senator from Montana feels that we can go 
ahead with this amendment on the Safe Drinking Water Act.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Madam President, I first want to give a compliment to the 
Senator from New Mexico. He has been diligent--which is, I might say, 
an understatement--in the number of times that he has talked to me 
about addressing border problems facing New Mexico. I would say he has 
approached me a good dozen times on the proper way, the proper bill, 
the way to essentially deal with this problem. I commend him, and I 
think all of the residents of New Mexico can be very proud of their 
representative on this and other issues.
  There are other similar amendments pressed by Senators that deal with 
the basic similar problem, namely, how to address pollution along the 
border. It is a severe problem, there is no doubt about it. I was 
there, and I visited the border--not the New Mexico border--but the 
summer before last I was in El Paso and Juarez, and I can tell the 
Senator from New Mexico that I have visited colonias, and I have seen 
them, I have smelled them, tasted them. It is a severe problem. It 
turns your stomach to see the conditions under which a lot of people 
have to live. The several that I visited have just sprung up because of 
the maquiladora dual-plant system along the border. These are people 
who come to get jobs, and the populations have increased dramatically 
in these communities. They have no place to live, so they squat, they 
find a spot and erect a tar-paper shack, and many more tar-paper shacks 
are erected right next to them, and pretty soon there are communities 
of tens of thousands of people, who are just trying to survive.
  They have no drinking water system--none. No sewage system --none. 
Maybe in some cases, there is a power line, so there is a light bulb 
that turns on. The ones I visited had, as I said, no drinking water, 
and people had to cart it there in tanks, in order to wash their 
clothes with, water to drink, and water to cook with. To make it even 
worse, Madam President, because there is no sewage, all the raw sewage 
is put right in the river. Tons of raw sewage goes right in the Rio 
Grande. Alongside the Rio Grande I remember seeing a separate river 
called Aqua Negras, and I think that means black ditch or black water. 
It is just sewage, and you could not get more than say 50 yards to it 
and you could smell it. It is quite a sight. It is true that the 
hepatitis rates and infectious disease rates along the border are much 
higher than in other parts of the country. It is a major problem. The 
real question is, How to best deal with it?
  As I have said to the Senator from New Mexico several times, it is 
the committee's wish and preference that the best way to deal with this 
very severe problem would be to take this request, and other similar 
requests other Senators have made with respect to needy communities in 
their States, and work together and find a way to address the problem, 
along with other problems, when the Clean Water Act comes before the 
full Senate.
  This essentially is a Clean Water Act problem. It is a sewage 
treatment facility matter--that is, finding the dollars to pay for it. 
In addition, Madam President, you already have the State revolving loan 
fund from which we allocate close to $2 billion for clean water 
projects, and that will be available to New Mexico, Arizona, 
California, Texas, and every other State in the Nation. That is in 
addition to the State revolving loan fund provided for under the Safe 
Drinking Water Act. So there are dollars available to States to address 
this.
  We are suggesting that an additional pool of funds be made available, 
to some degree, under the auspices of the United States-Mexican Border 
Environment Commission and maybe under the North American Development 
Bank, which is provided for under the North American Free-Trade 
Agreement. When the Clean Water Act comes up for authorization, it 
would be the committee's intention to work aggressively with the 
Senator to find a way to address the problems he has so eloquently and 
passionately addressed.
  Mr. BINGAMAN. Madam President, I thank the Senator from Montana, the 
manager of the bill, for his assurance that this is an issue we can 
address here later in the legislative year. I do think that I am 
willing to defer to his judgment as to whether this is the right bill 
to add this amendment on, but clearly it is an amendment that I feel 
strongly about.
  I know the Senator from Texas, who is here on the floor now and ready 
to speak, feels strongly about this. We do need to be sure that there 
will be an opportunity soon for us to offer the amendment to a bill 
which is likely to be signed into law by the President while this money 
is still available to be authorized.
  So I appreciate the chairman's statement that he will work with us to 
find such a vehicle, and I look forward to working with him to be sure 
that we can get this problem addressed and get this authorization 
accomplished.
  Thank you very much, and I know the Senator from Texas is also 
wishing to make a short statement on this. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Thank you, Madam President.
  I do want to add my thanks to the chairman for his commitment to help 
bring this amendment to a close at least in some other legislation.
  Out of the $500 million that has been appropriated for this purpose, 
the administration has suggested $60 million be allocated for our 
border States for the colonias.
  I think that is very fair and reasonable, and when we all sit down to 
allocate that $500 million we, I hope, we will be able to come to 
agreement to help a very critical situation on the border with Mexico.
  Colonias are really neighborhoods, but they are unincorporated 
communities, mostly in Texas and New Mexico, but also Arizona and 
California. These are people who came into our country. They are legal 
aliens. They are people who want to do better for themselves and to 
have that opportunity. It is the story that we have seen in America so 
many times where our immigrants come in. They want to do well. They do 
not want to go into the welfare system. But we must provide for them 
the clean water that must be appropriate for living conditions.
  I think if John Steinbeck had been alive today he would have written 
about the colonias much as he wrote in the past about the terrible 
conditions that he found in some parts of America.
  We must do something about this. The State of Texas has already 
authorized $250 million for matching grants for these colonias' water 
and waste water projects. I think the State of Texas is right to do 
that.
  The State of Texas has also passed a law that requires developers in 
the future to meet the standards that every developer should meet, 
which is that there will be a water system and a sewer system in every 
neighborhood that is built, and the State Attorney General will 
prosecute developers who do not live by these rules.
  But it is very important that we correct the current situation, and 
it will take a lot of money to do that. The State of Texas has stepped 
up to the line, but it is a Federal problem. It is something that 
happened because our borders were open where they should not have been 
open.
  So I appreciate the chairman's willingness to work with us. I 
appreciate the senior Senator from Rhode Island also being willing to 
help us when the time comes to divide up the $500 million to make sure 
that these border communities do have a fair shake to start their lives 
and to make something of themselves as we in America know is the case 
for the wonderful people who do come into our country who want to work 
and make a living and raise their families in cleanliness, which they 
certainly have a right to do. So thank you.
  I look forward to working with Senator Bingaman, Senator Baucus, and 
Senator Chafee in the future for the correct bill before September so 
that we can take care of this very important problem.
  Thank you, Madam President. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. CHAFEE. Madam President, I congratulate the Senator from Texas. 
She has been very determined on this matter of caring for the colonias, 
and she spoke to me many times about it. She outlined the situation 
very fairly here.
  I also want to assure her as did the chairman of the committee that 
we will try to find a vehicle and try to be helpful in her goal to get 
some of these appropriated moneys to care for this particular severe 
problem she has in her State. As she pointed out, it is not solely her 
State. It goes on in Arizona, New Mexico, and California likewise.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. I thank the Senator.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. DORGAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for 4 
minutes as if in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota is recognized.
  Mr. DORGAN. I thank the Chair.
  (The remarks of Mr. Dorgan pertaining to the introduction of S. 2123 
are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')

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