[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 37 (Wednesday, March 7, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E329]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


    INTRODUCTION OF THE CHESAPEAKE BAY PROGRAM REAUTHORIZATION AND 
                            IMPROVEMENT ACT

                                  _____
                                 

                           HON. BOB GOODLATTE

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 7, 2012

  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Chesapeake 
Bay Program Reauthorization and Improvement Act with my colleague Tim 
Holden from Pennsylvania.
  The Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the U.S., is an incredibly 
complex ecosystem that includes important habitats and is a cherished 
part of our American heritage. The Bay Watershed includes all types of 
land uses, from intensely urban areas, spread out suburban development 
and diverse agricultural practices.
  I have worked hard during past negotiations on the Farm Bill to 
ensure that critical resources are in place to help restore the Bay. 
While the goal from all involved is the same, restoring the health and 
vitality of the Bay, the path to that health and vitality is being 
strongly debated. It is a clear choice, overregulation and intrusion 
into the lives and livelihoods of those who choose to make the Bay 
watershed their home, or commonsense incentive-based efforts that help 
restore and protect our natural resources.
  Unfortunately, proposals like the Presidential Executive Order and 
the Environmental Protection Agency's Total Maximum Daily Load, TMDL, 
forces more mandates and overzealous regulations on all of those who 
live, work, and farm in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The EPA's TMDL is 
a power grab that sets strict limits on the amount of nutrients 
discharged into the Chesapeake Bay and each of its tributaries by 
different types of sources. These limits will dramatically restrict 
land usages for everyone who lives and works in the Watershed. Although 
the Clean Water Act requires the EPA to establish a TMDL, the power is 
currently reserved to the states to determine how to improve water 
quality, including determining nutrient reduction allocations among 
different types of point and non-point sources. In the proposed TMDL, 
the EPA has exceeded its authority in the Clean Water Act by setting 
specific nutrient reduction allocations by sector, a power currently 
reserved to the states.
  Beyond the fact that the EPA lacks the authority in the Clean Water 
Act to take the majority of the actions that it is taking, I have 
serious concerns about this approach to Bay restoration. EPA has 
increased its federal actions in the Watershed while relying on 
modeling data that does not adequately include nutrient reductions that 
have been made in the Watershed to guide its decisions. This raises 
serious concerns about the ability of the agency to measure and assess 
restoration efforts. Further, it is clear by reports of the communities 
and industries affected, that these new regulations will be devastating 
during our current economic downturn. This will result in many billions 
of dollars in economic losses to states, cities and towns, farms and 
other businesses large and small.
  This strategy limits economic growth and unfairly over regulates our 
local economies. Mr. Holden and I recognized that we must form a 
proposal that does not pit the health of the bay against the strength 
and vitality of our local communities and that is why we rise today to 
introduce the Chesapeake Bay Program Reauthorization and Improvement 
Act
  Instead of overregulation and intrusion into the lives and 
livelihoods of those who choose to make the Bay Watershed their home, 
our legislation allows states and communities more flexibility in 
meeting water quality goals so that we can help restore and protect our 
natural resources. Our bill sets up new programs to give farmers, 
homebuilders, and localities new ways to meet their water quality 
goals. This includes preserving current intrastate nutrient trading 
programs that many Bay states already have in place, while also 
creating a voluntary interstate nutrient trading program. Additionally, 
this bill creates a voluntary assurance framework for farmers. The 
program will deem farmers to be fully in compliance with their water 
quality requirements as long as they have undertaken appropriate 
conservation activities to comply with state and federal water quality 
standards.
  Our bill makes sure that the agencies are using common sense when 
regulating water quality goals for localities. Our legislation requires 
the regulators to take into account the availability, cost, 
effectiveness, and appropriateness of practices, techniques, or methods 
in meeting water quality goals. This will ensure that localities are 
not being mandated to achieve a reduction in nutrient levels by a 
prescribed date, when no technology exists to achieve that reduction 
within that timeline.
  Additionally, the bill contains language that reaffirms and preserves 
the rights of the states to write their own water quality plans. This 
role has been traditionally reserved to the states but that is being 
threatened by the Obama Administration's policies. The Obama 
Administration is seeking to expand their regulatory authority by 
seizing authority granted to the states and converting the Bay Cleanup 
efforts to a process that is a top down approach with mandatory 
regulations. I believe that each state knows best how to manage their 
water quality goals; not the bureaucrats at the EPA. This legislation 
would restore the original intent of the Clean Water Act and reaffirm 
the role of the States to write their own water quality plans.
  While our bill does a lot to improve water quality, we also call for 
more oversight over the Chesapeake Bay Program. For over 3 decades 
Congress has been working to preserve and protect the Chesapeake Bay. 
Despite the efforts of the federal, state, and local governments the 
health of the bay is still in peril. The participants in restoring the 
Bay include 10 federal agencies, six states and the District of 
Columbia, over one thousand localities and multiple nongovernmental 
organizations. This legislation would fully implement two cutting-edge 
management techniques, crosscut budgeting and adaptive management, to 
enhance coordination, flexibility and efficiency of restoration 
efforts. Neither technique is currently required or fully utilized in 
the Bay restoration efforts, where results have lagged far behind the 
billions of dollars spent. Further, this bill calls for a review of the 
EPA's Bay model. We often hear complaints from those who make good 
faith efforts to restore the Bay that their efforts are not being 
recognized by EPA's Bay model. EPA's model does not account for any 
voluntary measures being undertaken on farms to control nitrogen and 
phosphorous nor does it even account for some of the nitrogen and 
phosphorous reductions that are being achieved through government 
programs like USDA's Environmental Quality Incentives Program. 
Effectively, EPA is ignoring nutrient reductions that have already been 
achieved. Our legislation requires that an independent evaluator assess 
and make recommendations to alter EPA's Bay model, so that we can 
develop a model that will capture all of the nutrient reductions that 
are happening in the Bay.
  Mr. Speaker, the people who call the Bay Watershed home are the ones 
who are the most concerned about protecting and restoring the 
Chesapeake Bay. Unfortunately, too often these hardworking individuals 
are cast as villains and placed in a position where restoring the Bay 
is pitted against the economic livelihoods of their communities. We can 
restore the Bay while also maintaining the economic livelihood of these 
communities. The Chesapeake Bay Program Reauthorization and Improvement 
Act is the way we can do both. I look forward to working with my 
colleagues in the Congress, so that we can pass this important 
legislation and work to restore the Chesapeake Bay.

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