[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 38 (Thursday, March 30, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E457]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


          H.R. 910, SAN GABRIEL BASIN WATER QUALITY INITIATIVE

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                    HON. JUANITA MILLENDER-McDONALD

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 28, 2000

  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank both 
Chairman Boehlert and Ranking Member Borski of the House Subcommittee 
on Water Resources and Environment for their excellent work on this 
bill. I would also like to commend the continued bipartisan leadership 
of Chairman Shuster and Ranking Member Oberstar.
  H.R. 910 does have a significant impact on my district as groundwater 
contamination in the San Gabriel Basin is spreading and has already 
begun to reach the Central Basin.
  The Central Basin groundwater aquifer covers 277 square miles from 
Montebello to Pico Rivera and Whittier to Long Beach. And 1.5 million 
people depend on the Central Basin groundwater aquifer for their 
primary source of drinking water.
  The Central Basin groundwater aquifer is contaminated by volatile 
organic compounds, which originated from the San Gabriel Valley and 
have moved over the past ten years down into the Central Basin. Several 
wells, which contain drinking water, have been shut down because of 
contamination.
  The funds that will be made available through H.R. 910 will allow the 
Central Basin Municipal Water District to construct and operate a 
treatment facility that will clean up the contamination currently in 
the Basin. Funds allocated to the clean-up facilities in the San 
Gabriel Valley will help prevent further flows of contamination into 
the Central Basin.
  H.R. 910 is an excellent example of the federal government working in 
partnership with local governments and private entities to facilitate 
the resolution of a regional problem. I urge my colleagues to vote YES 
on final passage of H.R. 910.

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