[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 105 (Thursday, July 30, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1468-E1469]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          PERSONAL EXPLANATION

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOSE E. SERRANO

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 29, 1998

  Mr. SERRANO. Mr. Speaker, earlier today, I was recorded as voting in 
favor of agreeing to the conference report on H.R. 629, the Texas Low-
Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact.
  As should be obvious from my vote against the rule providing for 
consideration of the conference report, I had intended to vote against 
the conference report itself.
  I am in complete agreement with my colleagues from Texas and 
elsewhere who have fought against the imposition of what could become 
the nation's major depository for low-level radioactive waste on the 
largely poor and minority community of Sierra Blanca, Texas.
  I understand and share the concerns of Sierra Blanca and other 
minority communities.

[[Page E1469]]

The siting of a disproportionate number of New York City's waste 
transfer and waste processing facilities in the Hunts Point area of my 
South Bronx congressional district, and the related particulate-spewing 
diesel truck traffic, have led to disproportionate levels of asthma and 
other respiratory illnesses among my Hunts Point constituents, 
especially the children. Without attention to environmental justice, 
the more disenfranchised a community is, the likelier it is to find 
itself the depository for more powerful people's waste.

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