[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 135 (Thursday, September 8, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5446-S5447]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  WRDA

  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I rise to speak about legislation that 
is currently on the floor, the Water Resources Development Act.
  I start by thanking a great legislative team of opposites who come 
together--and when they do they get things done--that is, Senator 
Inhofe, the chair of the committee, and the ranking member, Senator 
Boxer. I thank both of them for tireless effort, including their staffs 
for bringing forward something that is very important to my home State 
but important to communities all across the country. I also want to 
thank our two leaders for coming together and finding a way to have a 
path forward that allows us to come to the bill without a vote on a 
motion to proceed, and that involves all of our colleagues wanting to 
work together and that is evident on this bill and I very much 
appreciate everybody's efforts.
  This comes after the Environment and Public Works Committee approved 
the Water Resources Development Act by 19 to 1 in the committee. 
Clearly, there is very strong bipartisan support, and it comes because 
the water infrastructure needs of the country are so great for every 
community, every State. I know the distinguished Presiding Officer 
would be able to tell the same story in North Dakota.
  I particularly want to focus on one part--and then I will speak more 
broadly about the bill--but the part that deals with lead exposure and 
lead in water, which is very important to me, as colleagues know, and 
very important to a community called Flint, MI, where 100,000 people, 
through no fault of their own, were exposed to excessive levels of 
lead. There are efforts going on now to try to fix that, and we will 
focus on the long-term health and nutrition needs of the children and 
families, but the water is still not fixed.
  People have said to me: Gosh, that was really bad what happened 
before in Flint. I say: No, no, it is not what happened in Flint, it is 
still happening. There are still bottles of water being delivered to 
homes, and people have been waiting. So we are grateful to be at this 
point, and there certainly is a sense of urgency coming from families 
in Flint and all around Michigan as well.
  More than one-half million preschool students in the United States 
are exposed to elevated lead levels. So this is an issue not only in 
Flint but in schools and other parts of Michigan, where the drinking 
fountains in the school--you know, when you are walking down the hall 
and see the drinking fountain in the school is shut down because of 
high lead exposure, that has happened in schools across the country.
  We have a particular concern because there are 9,000 children under 
the age of 6, not counting all the children in school, who have 
elevated lead levels. It is quite frightening because some of the homes 
in Flint actually have registered levels higher than a toxic waste 
dump. It is pretty scary and incredibly important that we support their 
efforts to get the pipes replaced as quickly as possible.
  The cost of lead exposure goes far beyond the $50 billion a year 
Americans have to pay in health care and in bottled water and all of 
the other health issues. Having unsafe water costs us our well-being, 
the health of the communities, economic development. It costs us a 
sense of dignity. As Americans, we think one of the basic rights that 
we don't think about--we just take it for granted that you are going to 
turn on the faucet and clean water is going to come out and you can 
drink it. That sense of basic confidence in infrastructure has been 
shaken in Flint but also in other communities across the country. That 
is something we are addressing in this bill that is so very important.
  I am very pleased we have a bill in front of us that will 
comprehensively not only address a community that we have been fighting 
for and care deeply about but other communities around Michigan and 
around the country. We need the funding in this bill--the authorization 
in this bill because of a number of reasons. Let me again--speaking 
about lead, there are 5,300

[[Page S5447]]

American cities that have been found to be in violation of Federal lead 
rules. So there are 5,300 cities right now that we know don't meet the 
standards for safety. In USA TODAY they reported that excessive lead 
has been detected in nearly 2,000 public water systems across all 50 
States. This is an important bill, and it addresses something that not 
only I have been focused on and my colleague Senator Peters has been 
focused on but I know other colleagues are focusing on in communities 
in their States.
  Frankly, there is no safe level of lead exposure and even a small 
amount can harm people over their lifetime. One study from Rhode Island 
found a correlation between even the lowest levels of lead exposure and 
declines in reading scores. There are certainly many other studies.
  When we look at what is happening in this bill, the first thing I am 
very pleased to say is that we have a provision that helps our 
communities that have literally been shut down, not only families with 
bottled water, but can you imagine being a downtown restaurant and we 
have economic development going on downtown and all of a sudden people 
don't want to come because they are worried the restaurant is using 
contaminated water. In fact, it is totally safe to come to downtown 
Flint, and they are making great efforts on economic development and 
revitalization. I was pleased to host the SBA Administrator a number of 
months ago, talking with small business entrepreneurs who are excited 
about being in Flint.
  When we look at the broad ripple effect when a water system isn't 
safe, it is most importantly about families and children, but it also 
affects small businesses and it affects the entire economy. So in this 
bill, we are very pleased we have a provision fully paid for by phasing 
out another program that will help address this.
  We also address lead contamination in communities across the country. 
There is a very important loan program that was put in place by the 
chairman and ranking member in the last WRDA bill but not activated, 
not funded, that we fund that will activate loans--$800 million, 
possibly more, in loans available for communities all across the 
country. The structure was set up in the last WRDA bill and now in this 
one we are actually funding it. So communities can activate very 
important loans to upgrade their water infrastructure.

  We also know that when we are looking at issues around lead 
contamination, we see across the country drinking water issues in 22 
percent of the homes in Jackson, MS, were found to exceed the Federal 
action lead levels. I remember the Mayor of Jackson saying to pregnant 
moms and children: Don't drink the water.
  It is not just water. There are 37 million housing units in the 
United States that contain lead-based paint. Even though we have come a 
long way, we have addressed lead-based paint, but we still have 
problems there in older homes that are still affecting children.
  Soil is another issue, and certainly those of us who work with our 
farmers understand that as a critical resource in growing our food in 
East Chicago, IN, some show lead levels up to 227 times above the 
Federal lead limits and 135 times above the arsenic limit. It is pretty 
tough to be growing things when you have that kind of contamination in 
the soil.
  The top 6 inches of soil had up to 30 times more lead than the level 
considered safe for children. Atlantic City, Philadelphia, Allentown, 
Pennsylvania, where over 500,000 children have enough lead in their 
blood to merit a visit to the doctor.
  In this bill, we provide resources as well to address issues related 
to public health and lead in children. We know that for the 286 million 
Americans who get their tapwater from community water systems, this 
bill is an incredibly important investment in many different ways. It 
is necessary for public health and safety, it is necessary for economic 
development, and communities across America will benefit from this.
  I also thank the committee for once again focusing on something else 
we in Michigan care about--the Great Lakes. We are surrounded. We have 
the peninsula surrounded by water and great beauty. Another wonderful 
summer we just had, where boating, fishing, and tourism is a very 
important part of our economy as well as a way of life. In this bill, 
for the first time, we established the Great Lakes Restoration 
Initiative, formally in law, and it will authorize $300 million for the 
Great Lakes Restoration Initiative over the next 5 years. This is 
important for all of us in the Great Lakes State. It is also important 
because 27 percent of the world's freshwater comes from the Great 
Lakes. So it is a very important economic resource for all of us.
  This bill also authorizes new programs to help with drought by 
promoting innovative water technology and research, for desalinization 
and water reuse and recycling.
  It authorizes very important Army Corps projects. There are 25 
critical Army Corps projects in 17 different States that are authorized 
in this legislation. These are authorizations for infrastructure 
projects that protect and address concerns in communities in South 
Carolina, Florida, New Jersey, and Louisiana, where we know about the 
hurricane and storm damage, and flood control projects in Texas, 
Missouri, Kansas, and California. There are environmental restoration 
projects in Oregon and in Washington State.
  There are additional dam improvement programs, new programs that 
allow FEMA to help rehabilitate high-hazard potential dams. America's 
84,000 dams are rapidly aging, and 14,000 of them are considered high 
risk, high hazard. We have about 88 of those dams in Michigan that are 
considered high hazard.
  So this is a bill that touches every single State. I know Members 
across the aisle have worked on this together. Clearly, it is something 
that is very important to Michigan, very important to families in 
Michigan. The piece that allows us to support the 100,000 people in 
Michigan is incredibly important for us, but we also understand that in 
the process of legislating, we have been able to support efforts and 
needs around the country and come together to do something that is 
important for communities in all of our States.
  I think that is what legislating is all about, as the Presiding 
Officer knows. You and I have worked together on many different 
projects that try to address concerns across the country.
  Again, I thank the chairman and ranking member for doing an 
outstanding job, for supporting our efforts but also supporting efforts 
of other Members. Hopefully, as we work our way through this process, 
we can come together on commonsense amendments that relate to this bill 
so we can have a very big vote on final passage and send it to the 
House, and hopefully our colleagues in the House will recognize how 
important this is to their districts and their States as well, and we 
will be able to get this to the President as soon as possible.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.

                          ____________________