[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 36 (Tuesday, March 6, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H1158-H1159]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1030
 THE AGENCY FOR TOXIC SUBSTANCES AND DISEASE REGISTRY DRAFT REPORT ON 
                          VIEQUES, PUERTO RICO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Puerto Rico (Mr. Pierluisi) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PIERLUISI. Madam Speaker, I rise to discuss a subject of great 
importance to me, to the people I represent, and to many of our fellow 
citizens around the country, and that is the health of nearly 10,000 
residents of Vieques, Puerto Rico.
  The people of Vieques sacrificed as much as, if not more than, any 
other U.S. civilian population to advance our military readiness. In 
the 1940s, the Federal Government expropriated lands on Vieques for use 
by the Navy. For over 60 years, the Navy conducted training operations 
on eastern Vieques, including ship-to-shore bombing, aerial bombing, 
and ground-based exercises. The Navy has reported that it dropped 
between 3 and 4 million pounds of ordnance on Vieques each year between 
1983 and 1998.
  Training operations on Vieques ceased in 2003, in part due to 
concerns about the risks to safety, health, and the environment posed 
by decades of weapons use. The Navy is now administering the cleanup of 
Vieques with support from other Federal and local agencies. In 2005, 
the EPA listed Vieques as one of the most hazardous sites in the U.S. 
To date, over 35,000 munitions on Vieques have been recovered and 
destroyed, including at least 19,000 live munitions.
  Unfortunately, numerous studies have shown that residents of Vieques 
have higher rates of cancer and other chronic illnesses than residents 
of mainland Puerto Rico, raising serious questions about whether there 
may be a link between those health problems and the island's long use 
as a military training range.
  In December, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, an 
agency within HHS, released a draft report that addresses whether there 
is evidence of a causal relationship between the identified health 
problems and the Navy's activities. ATSDR examined five ``pathways'' 
through which residents of Vieques might have been exposed to harmful 
contaminants: air, soil, fish, local produce and livestock, and 
drinking water. The conclusion reached by ATSDR in its draft report is 
generally the same as the conclusion reached by the agency in a series 
of controversial public health assessments it conducted on Vieques 
about a decade ago, specifically, that the available data does not 
establish that the contaminants in these pathways, some of which can be 
linked to military activities, were at levels expected to cause the 
reported health problems.
  Because the draft report leaves many crucial questions unanswered, 
today I'm filing extensive comments that I urge ATSDR to address before 
its report is finalized. My comments are intended to be constructive, 
because my constituents deserve a meticulous evaluation of the draft 
report aimed at producing concrete action by the Federal Government.
  In my comments, I note that ATSDR repeatedly acknowledges that its 
conclusions are not definitive, or even close to it, because the 
available data upon which the agency relies is incomplete in many 
respects. While ATSDR recommends that further studies be conducted to 
fill certain data gaps, the agency does not go far enough.
  In 2009, ATSDR stated that it expected to recommend biomonitoring to 
determine whether, and to what extent, residents have been exposed to 
harmful chemicals. Yet, in a startling reversal, the agency has now 
stated that ``it is not recommending a comprehensive, systematic 
biomonitoring effort at this time.''
  Given the health problems on Vieques and the potential link between 
those problems and military activities, such an action is misplaced. 
Therefore, I have urged ATSDR to recommend a comprehensive 
biomonitoring investigation. More generally, I have encouraged ATSDR 
and other Federal agencies, working in partnership with independent 
researchers, to take a more active and assertive role in designing, 
implementing, and especially funding the additional studies that are 
still needed to determine the nature and potential causes of the health 
problems being experienced by residents of Vieques.
  It is unacceptable that more than a decade after ATSDR completed its 
first public health assessments on Vieques, fundamental questions about 
the safety of the island's environment and the health of its residents 
remain unanswered. My constituents deserve better.

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