[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 140 (Thursday, September 20, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11859-S11860]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. LAUTENBERG:
  S. 2080. A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to 
ensure that sewage treatment plants monitor for and report discharges 
of raw sewage, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Environment 
and Public Works.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation 
to protect health and safety by notifying the public when there are 
potentially harmful sewage overflows in our streams, rivers, and 
coastal waters. This legislation, the Sewage Overflow Right-to-Know 
Act, would amend the Clean Water Act to require that owners and 
operators of publicly owned treatment works monitor their systems and 
notify the public when there is a sewage overflow with the potential to 
affect public health.
  The Clean Water Act is soon to celebrate its 35th anniversary, and 
despite great gains we are still far from achieving the goal of 
eliminating pollution discharges. EPA estimates that there are between 
23,000 and 75,000 sanitary sewer overflows each year. Those spills dump 
between 3 billion and 10 billion gallons of untreated sewage into our

[[Page S11860]]

rivers, lakes and coastal waters annually. In addition, combined sewer 
overflows spill 850 billion gallons of contaminated stormwater into our 
waterways each year.
  Increased investment in our wastewater infrastructure is sorely 
needed to avoid having water quality return to what it was in the 
1970s. This is why I chaired a hearing of the Environment and Public 
Works Committee's Transportation Safety, Infrastructure Security and 
Water Quality Subcommittee yesterday on clean water funding, and I look 
forward to working to reauthorize the Clean Water State Revolving Fund 
this Congress.
  While we work toward closing the infrastructure funding gap and 
reducing sewage pollution, we must also keep citizens safe by informing 
them when there are sewage overflows. The EPA estimates that up to 3.5 
million people get sick each year from recreational contact with waters 
contaminated by sanitary sewer overflows alone.
  Currently, citizens are often needlessly unaware of sewage overflows. 
Although some individual utilities do an excellent job of public 
notification, many do not provide any communication to the public. The 
Clean Water Act does not require public notification under the National 
Pollutant Discharge Elimination System for sanitary sewer overflows, 
and State requirements, where they exist, are extremely variable. This 
legislation would remedy that situation by ensuring that publicly-owned 
treatment works employ a monitoring system to alert the operators when 
there is an overflow, and relaying that information to the public when 
there is potential harm to the public's health. In cases where the 
overflow has the potential for imminent and substantial harm, public 
health authorities and other affected entities, such as local drinking 
water treatment plants, must also be notified.
  This legislation also requires annual reporting to EPA or the State 
with a summary of all overflows and the plans in place to address the 
overflows. This will help provide a more comprehensive picture of 
sewage infrastructure problems, and increase public awareness of needed 
repairs and upgrades.
  Clean water and public health are priorities for New Jersey. Some 
sewer pipes in my State date back 150 years, and overflows are becoming 
more common. In one event earlier this year, 150 million gallons of 
untreated sewage mixed with stormwater spilled into the Hackensack 
River. The Sewage Overflow Right to Know Act establishes public 
notification of health risks posed by sewage overflows to keep our 
residents healthy while we continue to work to reduce sewage pollution.
  I ask unanimous consent that the full text of the bill be printed in 
the Record immediately following my statement.
                                 ______