[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 103 (Thursday, July 18, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H4603]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          WATER FOR THE WORLD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, it looks like we dodged a bullet with 
the Prince George's water emergency, but wasn't it fascinating to watch 
all of the frantic activity that was necessary to deal with a planned 
4- or 5-day period where people would be denied something that 
virtually all of us take for granted? Safe drinking water when they 
needed it, as much as they need to drink, to bathe, to flush the 
toilet, to clean their dishes, to wash their clothes. The prospect of 
almost a week without water service really turned people's lives upside 
down.
  I'm glad that there is a temporary fix that may have solved the 
problem at least for the foreseeable future, but I hope that it will 
serve as a wake-up call because, in the United States, frankly, we are 
spoiled. We take for granted something that 2\1/2\ billion people 
around the world cannot: having adequate sanitation and safe drinking 
water.
  That's why I'm introducing legislation, Water for the World, with my 
colleague Congressman Poe from Texas, to enhance the efforts of the 
United States to be a partner to help poor people around the globe have 
access to what is a global problem, but we also need to do more at 
home. The challenges of climate change, combined with aging, inadequate 
water and sewer systems in the United States, place us at risk. We have 
80 percent of our population served by over 50,000 community water 
systems that have facilities with a life span of 15 to, maybe, 95 
years.
  It was a wake-up call here in Washington, D.C., where the average 
water pipe is more than 77 years old. I remember a trip to Cincinnati--
the scene of the first municipal water agency in the United States. 
They have something that is not unusual. Cities still have some pipes 
that are brick and wood, dating back to the 1800s. You can find this 
around the country. That's why it has been estimated that 1.7 trillion 
gallons of water--1 out of every 4 gallons--leaks before it reaches the 
faucet. That's 7 billion gallons a day. Think of 11,000 Olympic-sized 
swimming pools. If you were to place them end to end, they'd go 
basically from Washington, D.C., to Pittsburgh.
  We need to have a national effort to provide the almost $10 billion 
that the engineering community estimates will be necessary by 2020 to 
avoid regular service disruptions like was threatened in Prince 
George's County. We need to move forward with bipartisan legislation--
with the Water Resources Development Act, the WRDA bill--that, if 
you'll pardon the phrase, has been bottled up. I hope House Majority 
Leader Cantor allows that to come to the floor. It has bipartisan 
support. It authorizes investments that would help deal with water 
resources for the country now, would prevent emergencies in the future 
and, by the way, would put tens of thousands of Americans to work all 
across the country.
  With aging systems, water stress, drought, flood, we are just going 
to see more of the same going forward only on a scale of challenge 
that, until recently, was unimaginable. Let's use this as a wake-up 
call for Congress to step up and do its job not only with water and 
sanitation abroad but with water and sanitation at home, flood control, 
navigation--the energy challenges that are profound because of 
disruption to water. Let's start by an undertaking now on the scale 
that we know we can do and that is so important for our future. If we 
do, we won't just prevent problems like Prince George's was facing, but 
all of our communities will be more livable, our families safer, 
healthier and more economically secure--and by the way, it's the 
fastest way to jump-start the economy.

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