[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 124 (Thursday, September 28, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1870-E1871]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




INTRODUCTION OF THE BAY AREA REGIONAL WATER RECYCLING PROGRAM PROJECTS 
                           AUTHORIZATION ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 27, 2006

  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing 
legislation that will help the San Francisco Bay Area to solve its 
water challenges. My bill, ``The Bay Area Regional Water Recycling 
Program Projects Authorization Act of 2006,'' will provide local 
agencies with the Federal partner that they need in order to implement 
an ambitious and forward-thinking regional water recycling program.
  We put the tools for these Federal-local water recycling partnerships 
in place with the historic Reclamation Projects Authorization and 
Adjustment Act of 1992, which not only included my Central Valley 
Project Improvement Act but featured a provision now known simply as 
the ``Title XVI'' water recycling program.
  Across the country--and especially throughout the West and 
California--people recognize the critical need for water recycling as a 
means of drought-proofing and increasing our reliable water supply. 
Accordingly, the Title XVI program has been embraced not only by 
policymakers, local agencies, and water managers but by many within the 
Bureau of Reclamation, from the staff level to regional directors.
  Unfortunately, even though people on the ground understand the need 
for these recycling partnerships, the Bureau of Reclamation's official 
position is to oppose nearly every project proposed under Title XVI. As 
recently as this week, the Administration testified against two water 
recycling projects in the House Water and Power subcommittee.
  This opposition from the Administration has made it very difficult 
for local agencies to get

[[Page E1871]]

the Federal support and funding that they deserve. Instead of providing 
Federal cost sharing and technical support to local water recycling 
projects, the Bureau has effectively let proposals under the existing 
Title XVI program pile up.
  This is a shame. These projects are the future of water supply, and 
it's high time the Bureau joined that future. The best water recycling 
and reclamation projects are sustainable, scalable, reliable, and meet 
local needs with a local funding source. Unlike major dams and storage 
projects, water recycling projects do not have to cost billions of 
dollars, they don't destroy rivers--in fact, they can ease the pressure 
on natural waterways --and they don't trigger decades of litigation.

  In addition, traditional storage projects based on major dams and 
reservoirs have to spend the last dollar, pour the last ounce of 
concrete, and line the last canal before a single drop of water comes 
through the tap. But water recycling is modular and incremental, 
meaning that as each piece of the system is put in place, you can serve 
more people and more industries; you don't have to wait years to see 
results, and you can build on your successes by easily expanding the 
infrastructure to meet new needs.
  I hope that under the new Reclamation commissioner and the new 
Secretary of the Interior we will see a new commitment to the Title XVI 
program and to these clean solutions to water conflicts. It is very 
clear to me and to most others who follow these issues that the Bureau 
has struggled to keep pace in the modem era of water policy. In future 
Congresses, I am hopeful that we will review the agency's mission and 
its budget to determine that it is headed in the right direction.
  There is increasing awareness in Congress regarding the importance of 
water recycling, and an increasing commitment to improving Title XVI so 
that it works for everyone. For instance, I am very glad that my 
colleagues, Representative Napolitano, Senator Murkowski, and Senator 
Feinstein, have taken the lead in introducing legislation to reform the 
Title XVI program.
  Their new bipartisan, bicameral proposal, entitled ``Reclaiming the 
Nation's Water Act,'' is a wise one. First, their bill makes it 
perfectly clear that the Bureau of Reclamation's role includes creating 
new water supplies by reclamation and recycling. Second, as Senator 
Feinstein summarized it in her introductory statement, the legislation 
``establishes firm deadlines, a clear process, and very specific 
criteria by which project reviews are to be conducted.'' This will help 
ensure that deserving projects don't get left on the shelf.
  This legislation is sound, and I hope to work with my colleagues to 
implement it. And with the Bay Area Regional Water Recycling Program 
Projects Authorization Act of 2006 that I am introducing today, I am 
applying the principles of the ``Reclaiming the Nation's Water Act'' to 
the San Francisco Bay Area.
  The Bay Area Regional Water Recycling Program is a collaboration of 
public utilities that helps to meet our region's and state's growing 
water needs through a set of recycling and reclamation projects. As the 
program agencies wrote in a letter to me this summer: ``The regional 
approach ensures that potential projects with the greatest regional and 
statewide benefit receive the highest priority and support for 
implementation.''
  The projects in this coalition have been repeatedly vetted, both 
internally at the local level and by the Bureau of Reclamation. The 
2004 CALFED authorization directed the Department of the Interior to 
assess these projects' feasibility under Title XVI. That report, 
released this-year, stated that many of the Bay Area projects ``were 
very close to meeting the requirements,'' but that none passed all the 
Federal tests. Unfortunately, like other deserving Title XVI proposals 
across the West, that could have been where these projects stalled.

  We need to encourage communities who are trying to meet water demands 
with innovative technologies. The Bay Area Regional Water Recycling 
Program Projects Authorization Act of 2006, which is the result of a 
long process of deliberation and communication with those local 
agencies, authorizes the Bureau of Reclamation to participate in the 
six Bay Area Regional Water Recycling Program projects that are closest 
to completion. Each community with a project will be eligible to 
receive 20 percent of the project's construction cost.
  Constructing all six of these projects will bring online nearly 
10,000 acre-feet per year of reliable dry-year water supply. To produce 
the same amount of water with a traditional dam and reservoir project, 
you would need a dedicated facility that stored 47,500 acre-feet of 
water.
  Projects included in the Bay Area Regional Water Recycling Program 
Projects Authorization Act of 2006 are located in the City of Palo 
Alto; in the Cities of Pittsburg and Antioch through the Delta Diablo 
Sanitation District (DDSD); in the North Coast County Water District; 
in Redwood City in partnership with the South Bayside System Authority; 
and in the City of Gilroy in partnership with the Santa Clara Valley 
Water District.
  Although these worthy projects have supplied local funding, and 
secured matching State funding, they still need the Federal partner to 
step up. That's why my legislation authorizes the Secretary of the 
Interior to cooperate in these six projects.
  I know for a fact that Pittsburg, in my district, has worked 
diligently, along with Delta Diablo, to move through each step of the 
existing Title XVI process. This legislation gives them the assurance 
that the Federal partner will be there for them at the end to help 
implement their viable, feasible, and laudable project.
  There is a clear Federal interest in these projects, as there is in 
the other successful regional recycling programs like those of Southern 
California. A good water recycling program stretches existing supplies 
and provides certainty to all of the water users in the area; conflict 
can be reduced even in a critically dry year. As we all know, a stable 
and reliable regional water supply makes good neighbors.
  This very small Federal investment in the Bay Area Water Recycling 
Program will yield massive dividends to the Bay Area over time. Every 
gallon of recycled water that goes towards irrigating a golf course or 
highway median--or for commercial or industrial use--is a gallon of 
water that didn't need to be pulled from the troubled Bay-Delta.
  These programs are a fiscal and environmental win-win, and 
encouraging them is sound federal policy. I'm glad to be able to help 
them with this new bill.
  I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I again would 
like to commend Representative Napolitano and Senators. Feinstein and 
Murkowski for their leadership.

                          ____________________