[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 165 (Wednesday, September 23, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5835-S5837]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      SENATE RESOLUTION 714--ENCOURAGING THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE 
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY TO MAINTAIN AND STRENGTHEN REQUIREMENTS 
UNDER THE CLEAN WATER ACT AND REVERSE ONGOING ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS TO 
  WEAKEN THE CLEAN WATER ACT AND PROTECTIONS FOR WATERS OF THE UNITED 
                                 STATES

  Ms. DUCKWORTH (for herself, Mr. Booker, Mr. Merkley, Ms. Warren, Mr. 
Heinrich, Ms. Harris, Mrs. Feinstein, and Mr. Markey) submitted the 
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
Environment and Public Works:

                              S. Res. 714

       Whereas access to clean water is a fundamental human right;
       Whereas the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (62 Stat. 
     1155, chapter 758) was enacted into law in 1948;
       Whereas the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments 
     of 1972 (Public Law 92-500; 86 Stat. 816) were enacted with 
     bipartisan support and significantly reorganized and expanded 
     the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 et 
     seq.) (commonly known as and hereinafter referred to in this 
     preamble as the ``Clean Water Act'');
       Whereas the Clean Water Act is one of the most important 
     laws of the United States and the principal safeguard of the 
     United States against unregulated pollution or destruction of 
     surface waters of the United States;
       Whereas the objective of the Clean Water Act is to 
     ``restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological 
     integrity of the Nation's waters'';
       Whereas the Clean Water Act declared national goals of 
     eliminating the discharge of pollutants into the waters of 
     the United States by 1985 and, wherever attainable, ensuring 
     that waters were fishable and swimmable by 1983;
       Whereas the Clean Water Act provides strong and 
     comprehensive requirements for the control of pollutants in 
     the waters of the United States;
       Whereas the Clean Water Act authorizes Federal financial 
     assistance for building and upgrading municipal sewage 
     treatment plants and other types of water quality 
     improvements projects;
       Whereas rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, wetlands, and other 
     waters have enormous public health, community welfare, 
     economic, and ecological importance to the United States, 
     considering that--
       (1) 1 in 3 individuals in the United States receive 
     drinking water from systems that

[[Page S5836]]

     draw supply from headwater, intermittent, or ephemeral 
     streams;
       (2) according to a report of the Environmental Protection 
     Agency, streams provide the majority of water to most rivers 
     and ``transport sediment, wood, organic matter, nutrients, 
     chemical contaminants, and many of the organisms found in 
     rivers'';
       (3) chemical, physical, and biological processes in streams 
     can convert nitrogen and other nutrients, preventing nitrogen 
     and other nutrients from causing downstream harm;
       (4) wetlands prevent and minimize flooding by storing as 
     much as between 1,000,000 and 1,500,000 gallons of water for 
     each acre of wetland;
       (5) wetlands and other waters in the flood plains of rivers 
     and streams help prevent pollution from reaching downstream 
     waters;
       (6) \3/4\ of fish harvested commercially depend on 
     wetlands;
       (7) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 
     that ``about 91 million people over the age of 16 swim in 
     oceans, lakes, and rivers each year in the United States'';
       (8) approximately 37 percent of water withdrawals, or 
     118,000,000,000 gallons of water withdrawals per day, are 
     used for irrigation, and 52 percent of water withdrawals are 
     taken from surface waters;
       (9) a recent study estimated that wetlands around the world 
     provide ecosystem services like flood prevention and 
     pollution filtration worth more than $47,000,000,000,000 per 
     year;
       (10) fishing and other water sports contribute 
     $175,000,000,000 annually to the economy of the United States 
     and support more than 1,500,000 jobs;
       (11) companies often need clean water in their industrial 
     processes or as a component of their end product, such as 
     craft beer brewers that depend on a reliable source of clean 
     water, add approximately $76,000,000,000 annually to the 
     economy of the United States, and support more than 500,000 
     jobs;
       (12) according to 1 study, the ecological restoration 
     economy, which includes mitigation for harms to waters due to 
     discharges of dredged or fill material, ``directly employs 
     126,000 workers and generates $9.5 billion in economic 
     output'' per year, which ``supports an additional 95,000 jobs 
     and $15 billion in economic output through indirect 
     (business-to-business) linkages and increased household 
     spending'';
       (13) more than 318,000,000 individuals visited national 
     parks in the United States in 2018 to engage in recreation 
     and be inspired by thundering waterfalls, streaming geysers, 
     desert springs, ocean beaches, and jeweled lakes, generating 
     $40,000,000,000 for the economy of the United States and more 
     than 330,000 private sector jobs;
       (14) the Environmental Protection Agency reports that the 
     Great Lakes contain ``84% of North America's surface fresh 
     water'' and ``about 21% of the world's supply of surface 
     fresh water'';
       (15) restoring and protecting the Great Lakes and their 
     tributaries also protects the $6,000,000,000,000 regional 
     economy of the Great Lakes and the 1,500,000 jobs and 
     $62,000,000,000 in wages directly connected to the Great 
     Lakes; and
       (16) the Great Lakes and their tributaries facilitate 
     nearly $16,000,000,000 in annual spending by residents and 
     the 37,000,000 hunters, anglers, bird watchers, and other 
     tourists who visit the region for recreation;

       Whereas water pollution and the loss of water resources can 
     cause catastrophic harm to the health and economic strength 
     of communities, evidenced by the fact that--
       (1) in 2014, a harmful algal bloom in western Lake Erie 
     prompted a 3-day shutdown of the drinking water supply of 
     Toledo, Ohio, affecting approximately 500,000 individuals;
       (2) a spill of a toxic chemical into the Elk River in 
     Charleston, West Virginia, caused a cutoff of drinking water 
     for approximately 300,000 individuals for several days;
       (3) outbreaks of blue-green algae and red tide in Florida 
     have caused widespread harm to businesses and have killed a 
     substantial number of aquatic animals over multiple years, 
     with the effects of the outbreaks in 2018 being particular 
     severe;
       (4) in 2008, the coal ash waste pit of the Tennessee Valley 
     Authority near Kingston, Tennessee, experienced a mammoth 
     structural failure and released more than 1,000,000,000 tons 
     of waste into the Emory and Clinch Rivers, and a 2019 
     analysis found that similar pits around the country routinely 
     leak and contaminate nearby groundwater and surface waters;
       (5) beaches in multiple States, including Mississippi, New 
     Jersey, Washington, and New York, were forced to close due to 
     outbreaks of algae that are commonly fueled by nitrogen and 
     phosphorus pollution;
       (6) intense flooding is occurring in places like Houston, 
     Texas, where wetland destruction is believed to be 
     contributing to the severity of the flooding; and
       (7) many areas of the United States are expected to 
     experience worsened drought conditions with climate change, 
     making the preservation of water resources more critical;

       Whereas the Clean Water Act dramatically slowed the rate of 
     wetlands loss in the United States from more 500,000 acres 
     annually in the 1950s to approximately 80,000 acres annually 
     in the late 1990s;
       Whereas the quality of numerous water bodies has 
     substantially improved since the adoption of the Clean Water 
     Act, including the Charles River in Massachusetts, the 
     Chesapeake Bay, and the Great Lakes;
       Whereas, despite the improvements brought about by the 
     Clean Water Act, the United States still faces major water 
     resource and pollution challenges, evidenced by the fact 
     that--
       (1) according to the most recent State data submitted to 
     the Environmental Protection Agency--
          (A) 53 percent of assessed rivers and streams do not 
     meet 1 or more water quality standards, which are established 
     to ensure waters are clean enough for specific uses like 
     fishing and swimming;
          (B) 71 percent of assessed lakes, reservoirs, and ponds 
     are impaired;
          (C) 80 percent of assessed bays and estuaries are 
     impaired; and
          (D) 72 percent of assessed coastal shoreline waters are 
     impaired; and
       (2) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
     published a report stating that the increasing frequency of 
     harmful algal blooms is associated with increasing 
     temperatures and levels of nutrients in waters of the United 
     States;

       Whereas the 2017 Infrastructure Report Card of the American 
     Society of Civil Engineers gave the wastewater infrastructure 
     of the United States a grade of D+;
       Whereas the most recent Clean Watersheds Needs Survey 
     report to Congress identified not less than $271,000,000,000 
     worth of capital needs for wastewater, storm water, and other 
     clean water infrastructure;
       Whereas the condition of the waters of the United States 
     consistently ranks as one of the most acute environmental 
     worries of individuals in the United States, with 80 percent 
     of respondents in a March 2019 Gallup Poll indicating that 
     they worry a great deal or a fair amount about the pollution 
     of rivers, lakes, and reservoirs;
       Whereas the United States Commission on Civil Rights 
     recommended further study and analysis of Federal laws, 
     including the Clean Water Act, to analyze gaps in civil 
     rights protections and found that the ``EPA's definition of 
     environmental justice recognizes environmental justice as a 
     civil right, fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all 
     people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income 
     with respect to the development, implementation, and 
     enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and 
     policies'';
       Whereas the United States Geological Survey conducted 
     limited monitoring of 17 perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl 
     substances (referred to in this preamble as ``PFAS'') in 
     source and treated public water supplies from 25 drinking 
     water facilities and found PFAS in all source water and 
     public water supply samples collected;
       Whereas a study led by Harvard University researchers found 
     that the drinking water supplies for not less than 6,000,000 
     individuals in the United States exceed the health advisory 
     of the Environmental Protection Agency for 2 PFAS, 
     perfluorooctanoic acid (commonly referred to as ``PFOA'') and 
     perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (commonly referred to as 
     ``PFOS''), and more recent information indicates that more 
     comprehensive monitoring would find that the drinking water 
     of many times more than 6,000,000 individuals in the United 
     States contains PFAS at levels that pose significant health 
     hazards;
       Whereas the Environmental Protection Agency has initiated 
     numerous administrative actions that collectively would 
     eviscerate the protections of the Clean Water Act and other 
     safeguards for clean water, including--
       (1) repealing science-based protections for streams, 
     wetlands, and other waters and the exclusion of millions of 
     miles of streams and tens of millions of acres of wetlands 
     from the pollution control programs of the Clean Water Act;
       (2) easing restrictions on wastewater plants, authorizing 
     the plants to release partially treated sewage during 
     rainstorms;
       (3) refusing to develop regulations mandated by the Clean 
     Water Act aimed at avoiding and minimizing spills of 
     hazardous substances;
       (4) weakening rules relating to the siting, operating, 
     monitoring, and closing of pits where coal ash and other coal 
     combustion waste is dumped;
       (5) exempting polluters who harm waterways from the 
     penalties of the Clean Water Act if their discharge first 
     travels through groundwater from the discharge permitting 
     program of the Clean Water Act;
       (6) restricting the authority of experts from the 
     Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Water Act to 
     stop dumping projects that cause unacceptable harms to water 
     bodies;
       (7) delaying and weakening toxic pollution discharge limits 
     for power plants; and
       (8) curtailing the rights of States and Tribal nations 
     under the Clean Water Act to review federally-permitted 
     projects and impose conditions on or reject a project, as 
     appropriate, to prevent harm to their waterways;

       Whereas the United States remains far from achieving the 
     objective of the Clean Water Act by putting critical 
     resources that provide enormous value to the United States at 
     risk; and
       Whereas the proposed actions of the Environmental 
     Protection Agency would substantially worsen the risk to 
     critical resources: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate encourages the Administrator of 
     the Environmental Protection Agency to--
       (1) maintain and strengthen, rather than attack, 
     requirements that keep waterways of the United States clean;

[[Page S5837]]

       (2) end any ongoing administrative actions that weaken--
       (A) existing regulations that were promulgated under the 
     Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.); 
     and
       (B) other requirements protecting the waters of the United 
     States; and
       (3) initiate actions to reverse any administrative actions 
     that have already been completed that weaken the 
     implementation by the Federal Government of--
       (A) the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 
     et seq.); and
       (B) other requirements that protect the waters of the 
     United States.

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