[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 28 (Monday, February 28, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E321-E322]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             FULL-YEAR CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2011

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, February 18, 2011

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1) making 
     appropriations for the Department of Defense and the other 
     departments and agencies of the Government for the fiscal 
     year ending September 30, 2011, and for other purposes.

  Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chair, I rise in strong opposition to the amendment 
offered by Mr. Goodlatte, which would prohibit the use of funds made 
available by this Act to develop, promulgate, evaluate, implement, 
provide oversight to, or backstop total maximum daily loads or 
watershed implementation of these TMDLs for the Chesapeake Bay 
Watershed.
  As the Representative of Maryland's 7th Congressional District, I was 
proud to have worked closely with Maryland Senator Ben Cardin during 
the last Congress to lead the effort to reauthorize the Chesapeake Bay 
Program and to instill innovative new approaches into the program that 
will finally lead to the true restoration of the Chesapeake Bay.
  Unfortunately, we were unable to enact that legislation during the 
last Congress--but the effort to create a Chesapeake Bay program that 
supports effective clean-up of the Bay will continue.
  Fortunately, a number of other processes are already underway that 
will expand and strengthen the effort to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.
  President Obama issued an executive order to guide a renewed and 
reinvigorated federal clean-up effort shortly after taking office.
  And critically, on December 29, 2010, the long-awaited Total Maximum 
Daily Loads, TMDL, were issued for the Bay--and the watershed states 
are now developing their Watershed Implementation Plans, WIP.
  The TMDLs established for the Chesapeake Bay are specifically 
required under the federal Clean Water Act. Their development is also 
consistent with consent decrees in Virginia and the District of 
Columbia from the late 1990s.
  According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the TMDLs set Bay 
watershed limits of 185.9 million pounds of nitrogen, 12.5 million 
pounds of phosphorus and 6.45 billion pounds of sediment per year--
limits that would achieve a 25 percent reduction in nitrogen, 24 
percent reduction in phosphorus, and 20 percent reduction in sediment 
flowing into the Bay.

[[Page E322]]

  The TMDLs are tough--but they are realistic about the reductions in 
pollution we need throughout the 64,000-square-mile watershed to 
restore the Bay's health.
  Over the past decades, the effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay has 
been largely based on voluntary agreements within and among the states.
  Recent assessments of the Bay show us that the pledging of earnest 
promises, the utterance of heart-felt slogans, and the signing of 
agreements enforced only by good will have achieved water quality in 
the Bay that is still rated ``very poor''--even though billions of 
dollars have been spent in support of these promises.
  If we are serious about cleaning up the Bay, we must implement the 
TMDLs--and the EPA must be fair but insistent in applying these 
requirements.
  It is therefore essential that the TMDL process get off to a fast, 
efficient, and effective start.
  Eliminating funding for the enforcement of the TMDLs is tantamount to 
arguing that we should continue to allow the Chesapeake Bay to be a 
sewer--where pollutants running out of storm drains and waste treatment 
plants, from overly fertilized front yards, and off farm fields collect 
and create ``dead zones'' where life cannot be sustained.
  The Virginia Institute of Marine Science has estimated that 40 
percent of the jobs in Maryland and Virginia associated with crabbing 
were eliminated between 1998 and 2006--an outcome resulting from the 
decimation of the crab population due to the pollution accumulating in 
the Bay.
  In the face of such losses, a vote against enforcement of the TMDL is 
a vote that says job losses are acceptable--and that though options are 
available to restore the Bay, a polluted Bay is good enough.
  I urge my colleagues to reject this position by voting against this 
amendment and in favor of a robust effort to clean the Chesapeake Bay.

                          ____________________