[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 130 (Monday, October 11, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1908]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         SAFE DRINKING WATER FOR HEALTH COMMUNITIES ACT OF 2004

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. HILDA L. SOLIS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 8, 2004

  Ms. SOLIS. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to introduce the Safe Drinking 
Water for Healthy Communities Act of 2004. This legislation will 
require the EPA to establish a national primary standard for drinking 
water for perchlorate--otherwise known as rocket fuel.
  Perchlorate is a component of rocket fuel--used heavily by the 
military and its defense contractors. Perchlorate contamination in 
California is primarily the result of releases from 12 military and 
defense contractor sites. It disrupts the functioning of the thyroid, 
resulting in behavior changes and delayed development in children and 
thyroid tumors in adults. It removes valuable water supplies from 
service.
  Today, communities across the country are finding perchlorate in 
their drinking water, groundwater, irrigation water, and soil. In mid 
1997, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California discovered 
perchlorate in the lower Colorado River. It was traced to a Kerr McGee 
plant in Henderson Nevada. Releases to Lake Mead and the Lower Colorado 
River have impacted the drinking water supply of 15 to 20 million 
people in Arizona, southern California, southern Nevada, Tribal nations 
and Mexico. Today more than 120 wells in Los Angeles County have been 
found to be contaminated with varying levels of perchlorate.
  In the district I represent the water providers are struggling to 
handle the plumes of perchlorate, the legacy of Aerojet. The City of 
Baldwin Park hosts the nation's first perchlorate treatment facility--a 
necessity in order to maintain the reliability and availability of safe 
drinking water. My community faces costs over the next 15 years of at 
least $200 million as the result of perchlorate contamination. Yet 
there exists no enforceable public health standard to ensure our 
drinking water is safe.
  This bill requires the EPA to establish a national primary drinking 
water standard. Without this, there is no requirement for water to have 
safe levels of perchlorate and water providers will continue to 
struggle with guaranteeing long term reliability of safe water sources. 
Inaction poses an unreasonable risk to both our valuable water supply 
and our health.

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