[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 124 (Thursday, September 29, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S10760]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  SENATE RESOLUTION 261--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT THE 
  CRISIS OF HURRICANE KATRINA SHOULD NOT BE USED TO WEAKEN, WAIVE, OR 
   ROLL BACK FEDERAL PUBLIC HEALTH, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND ENVIRONMENTAL 
          JUSTICE LAWS AND REGULATIONS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

  Mr. KERRY (for himself, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Reid, Mr. Obama, Mrs. Boxer, 
and Mr. Jeffords) submitted the following resolution; which was 
referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works:

                              S. Res. 261

       Whereas Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the Gulf Region 
     on August 29, 2005, destroying property, causing massive 
     floods, and resulting in more than $35,000,000,000 in insured 
     property losses and over 1,000 deaths;
       Whereas expeditiously rebuilding those areas affected by 
     Hurricane Katrina and providing the victims of the storm with 
     normalcy and relief must be the top priorities for Congress;
       Whereas Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff 
     recently commented, ``We are going to have to clean probably 
     the greatest environmental mess we have ever seen in the 
     country as a result of Hurricane Katrina'';
       Whereas Hurricane Katrina demonstrates the connection 
     between the health and safety of communities and the health 
     of natural resources;
       Whereas many of the hardest hit areas in New Orleans and 
     the Gulf Coast from Hurricane Katrina were low-income and 
     minority communities already facing decades of environmental 
     injustices;
       Whereas at least 9 major oil spills, and scores of smaller 
     oil and hazardous substance spills, leaks, and other releases 
     have occurred;
       Whereas 60 underground storage tanks, hazardous waste 
     storage facilities, and industrial facilities, and 5 
     Superfund sites in New Orleans were hit by Hurricane Katrina, 
     yet monitoring reported to date has only been conducted at a 
     handful of sites for a limited number of contaminants;
       Whereas nearly 1,000 drinking-water systems were disabled 
     or impaired because of power outages or structural damage, 
     many people have been told to boil their water, and safe 
     drinking water may not be available for the entire population 
     for years to come;
       Whereas the Environmental Protection Agency's initial water 
     quality tests found that flood water in New Orleans contains 
     10 times more E. Coli bacteria than the Agency considers safe 
     for human contact and lead concentrations that exceed 
     drinking water standards, and the mix of contaminants poses a 
     serious disease risk to those wading through the filthy 
     water;
       Whereas proper implementation and enforcement of Federal 
     public health and environmental regulations are necessary to 
     protect human health, especially among vulnerable 
     populations, and are necessary in times of emergency to 
     ensure that the response to a disaster does not exacerbate 
     the initial impact;
       Whereas major industrial facilities and toxic waste sites 
     disproportionately impact low-income individuals, minorities, 
     children, the elderly, and all underserved communities;
       Whereas more than 1 in 4 Americans, including 10,000,000 
     children, live within 4 miles of a Superfund site, which 
     poses serious public health issues when sites are not cleaned 
     up adequately and in a timely manner;
       Whereas the health of low-income and minority communities 
     continues to suffer, largely because of the cumulative impact 
     of all sources of pollution on public health in the acute 
     impact area and the failure to consider cumulative impacts 
     upon siting of new industrial facilities and cleanup of 
     existing toxic communities;
       Whereas the addition of poor environmental protection and 
     enforcement to existing health vulnerabilities has only 
     exacerbated the conditions in these communities, which often 
     suffer from higher rates of illness and death in comparison 
     with middle-class, suburban, and more affluent communities;
       Whereas Federal public health and environmental laws 
     provide many opportunities to address environmental risks and 
     hazards in minority and low-income communities if applied and 
     implemented;
       Whereas Executive Order 12898 states that each Federal 
     agency shall make achieving environmental justice part of its 
     mission by identifying and addressing, as appropriate, 
     disproportionately high and adverse human health or 
     environmental effects of its programs, policies, and 
     activities on minority and low-income populations;
       Whereas in 2005, the Congress passed and President Bush 
     signed into law (Public Law 109-54) language prohibiting the 
     Environmental Protection Agency from using appropriated funds 
     to work in contravention of Executive Order 12898 and further 
     delay the implementation of this Order, which is critical to 
     achieving environmental and health equity across all 
     community lines;
       Whereas environmental cleanup of affected areas must be 
     done in an effective and timely manner to ensure the victims 
     of Hurricane Katrina can return to their homes without 
     enduring preventable environmental or health risks; and
       Whereas weakening, waiving, and rolling back Federal public 
     health and environmental protections would further threaten 
     the heavily-damaged area of the Gulf Coast, negatively impact 
     the public health of the already most-affected communities, 
     and put public health and the environment at greater future 
     risk at the expense of all communities: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) the crisis of Hurricane Katrina and other such 
     disasters should not be used to weaken, waive, or roll back 
     Federal public health, environmental, and environmental 
     justice laws and regulations;
       (2) State, local, and regional authorities must retain 
     their authority for compliance and permitting of industrial 
     and other facilities, and their role in enforcing and 
     implementing monitoring and cleanup regulations;
       (3) testing, monitoring, cleanup, and recovery in the 
     region hit by Hurricane Katrina and other areas of national 
     emergency--
       (A) should be completed in a manner designed to protect 
     public health and the environment and ensure habitability of 
     the region and mitigate against the effects of future storms; 
     and
       (B) should be carried out in compliance with Executive 
     Order 12898; and
       (4) the Federal rebuilding of communities and the economy 
     of the Gulf Region should be a model of the integrated, 
     diverse, and sustainable society that all people in the 
     United States desire and deserve.

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