[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 89 (Monday, June 25, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1194]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




INTRODUCTION OF A BILL TO AMEND THE FEDERAL WATER POLLUTION CONTROL ACT 
  TO INCREASE THE FEDERAL SHARE OF THE COST OF CONSTRUCTING TREATMENT 
                   WORKS IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 25, 2001

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today we introduce a bill to make permanent 
an 80-20 match for the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority 
(WASA), which serves jurisdictions in Virginia, Maryland, and the 
District of Columbia through its facility at Blue Plains. In fiscal 
years 1998 and 2000, the 80-20 match was included in appropriations 
bills. Because the Fiscal Year 2000 provision expires at the end of 
Fiscal Year 2001, this legislation to make the 80-20 match permanent is 
necessary.
  The Blue Plains facility operated by WASA is the largest advanced 
waste water treatment plant in the world, serving two million users in 
the Maryland and Virginia suburbs as well as the District of Columbia. 
The financial and operational health of this facility is vital to the 
efforts to clean up the Chesapeake Bay as well as waters that serve the 
City of Vienna, and the counties of Fairfax, Loudoun, Montgomery, and 
Prince Georges. Blue Plains is responsible for the largest reductions 
of nitrogen into the Bay of any facility in the entire Bay Watershed.
  WASA has only been able to undertake major facility improvements--
including biosolids digestion and handling facilities, major 
renovations to preliminary treatment facilities, new chemical feed 
operations, and additional electrical system enhancements--because of 
the 80-20 formula.
  We also seek this change as a matter of fairness. In enacting the 
National Capital Revitalization and Self-Government Improvement Act of 
1997 (Act), Congress recognized that the District, a city without a 
state, shoulders an unfair financial obligation in programs in which 
municipalities normally have state financial assistance. The Act 
provided for federal support for the state share of several such 
programs. The region has been unable to take advantage of the usual 
combination of state and city matches only because this facility, which 
serves regional partners, happens to be located in the District of 
Columbia.
  A permanent 80-20 federal-local match would place the District on a 
par with other municipalities and states in the United States. The 20% 
that the District would continue to assume is equivalent to the burden 
borne by many other cities in the country. Of course, local rate payers 
in the region would continue to bear their share.
  We urge our colleagues to join us in supporting this important 
provision that would provide tangible benefits to regional residents 
and to the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, as well as the Chesapeake Bay, 
a national treasure.




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