[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 45 (Friday, March 10, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3771-S3772]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


             EPA DRINKING WATER REGULATIONS SHOULD PROGRESS

  Mr. KOHL. Mr. President, I rise today to express my displeasure with 
action taken by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.
  Yesterday, in their markup of regulatory moratorium legislation, on a 
party-line vote, the Governmental Affairs Committee rejected an 
amendment by Senator Glenn to allow long-overdue EPA regulations 
protecting citizens from parasite contamination in drinking water to 
move forward.
  Mr. President, just under 2 years ago, my colleagues will perhaps 
remember 
[[Page S3772]] the national headlines delivering the grim news that 
citizens of Milwaukee were dying as a result of an infestation by the 
parasite cryptosporidium in the city's drinking water. By the time the 
parasite infestation had fully run its course, 104 Milwaukee residents 
had died, and over 400,000 had suffered from a debilitating illness.
  What was the cause of the infestation? Government inaction. While we 
can all talk at length, and with good justification, about examples of 
over-regulation, we must recognize that there are instances in which 
the Federal Government has not done enough to protect our citizens. Mr. 
President, parasite contamination in drinking water is one of those 
cases. The 104 deaths and 400,000 illnesses in Milwaukee are but one 
example attesting to that fact. In reality, while the Milwaukee 
incident is the largest reported outbreak in U.S. history, it is just 
one of many outbreaks nationwide. Other major outbreaks in recent years 
include a 1987 cryptosporidium outbreak in Carrollton, GA, that 
sickened 13,000 people, and a 1992 cryptosporidium incident in Jackson 
County, OR that caused 15,000 people to become ill. There are numerous 
other examples of parasite contamination nationwide.
  In reaction to the lack of Federal Government action in this area, 
the city of Milwaukee has gone ahead with its own efforts to protect 
its residents against water-borne parasites such as cryptosporidium. 
But other communities are still vulnerable.
  Mr. President, I support efforts to require a thoughtful cost-benefit 
justification to be made for Federal regulations. I think that that 
makes eminent sense given the complexity of risks that exist today. But 
I urge my colleagues to exercise some judgment and common sense when it 
comes to matters as important and as dangerous as parasite 
contamination in drinking water. We can sit in our towers of 
philosophical purity and vote party line on matters of general policy, 
but when it comes to life and death realities for the people of this 
Nation, we must use common sense.
  So again Mr. President, I am upset by the actions of the Governmental 
Affairs Committee yesterday to prevent EPA from moving forward with 
regulations to protect our citizens from parasite contamination in 
drinking water. It is my hope that when the regulatory moratorium 
legislation reaches the floor, my friends on the other side of the 
aisle will use their good common sense when it comes to clear dangers 
in our drinking water. We should not be voting party line, when lives 
are on the line.


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