[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5068-5069]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 SAFE DRINKING WATER FOR RURAL AMERICA

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, as the Congress works to provide billions of 
dollars to address a crisis affecting our neighbors abroad who have had 
their lives disrupted overnight by raging waters, I have become more 
and more concerned about another water-related crisis occurring every 
day in this nation. That crisis is the lack of a safe, reliable supply 
of drinking water for millions of rural American families. Since 1995, 
federal data outlining the sorry details of the safe drinking water 
crisis have been available and, yet, year after year, adequate funding 
for water and wastewater projects that would solve this crisis is not 
provided. Last night, my distinguished colleagues joined Senator 
Stevens and me in sending a message to rural Americans that their 
crisis is not forgotten.
  Yesterday evening, the Senate adopted an amendment offered by myself 
and Senator Stevens to the supplemental appropriations bill that would 
provide $30 million in additional funds for rural water and wastewater 
systems. This money would benefit the neediest of rural communities 
that are affected by extreme conditions that increase the cost of 
constructing water and wastewater systems, that have a high incidence 
of health problems related to water supply and poor sanitary 
conditions, or whose residents are suffering from a high rate of 
poverty.
  Within the $30 million in budget authority provided in this 
amendment, $5 million would be allocated for loans and $25 million for 
grants. The result would be a total program level of $55,303,000. The 
reality of this funding is that this year, an additional 25 or more 
communities throughout the United States would get some relief from the 
fear of an inadequate, unsafe supply of drinking water.
  Safe, reliable drinking water is not an amenity. Safe drinking water 
is essential to the health and well-being of every American. All life 
as we know it depends on the necessary element of water.
  Most Americans take safe drinking water for granted. Most Americans 
just

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assume that when they turn on the faucet, clean water will 
automatically flow out of the faucet. They assume that there will 
always be easy access to an unlimited supply of clean, safe drinking 
water.
  The terrible truth is that, in the United States of America, the 
health of millions of men, women, and children is made vulnerable by 
their reliance on a possibly contaminated water supply.
  According to statistics from 1998, approximately 2.2 million rural 
Americans live with critical quality and accessibility problems related 
to their drinking water, including an estimated 730,000 American 
citizens who have no running water in their homes. Let me repeat that--
an estimated 730,000 people have no running water in their homes. An 
additional five million rural Americans are affected by grave, although 
less critical, water problems, such as water sources that are over-
taxed or poorly protected, and by antiquated distribution systems. The 
very young and the elderly are placed at particular risk of illnesses 
caused by unsafe, unclean, drinking water, and many towns without a 
reliable supply of water cannot even protect residents from the threat 
of fire.
  This funding provided in our amendment is desperately needed to 
address conditions in West Virginia and much of Appalachia, the 
Mississippi Delta, in rural and native Alaskan villages, the Colonias, 
and in Indian Reservations. Senator Stevens has been working hard to 
get the necessary funds for an authorized program for rural development 
in several Alaskan Native villages. I understand that while the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture (USDA) is trying to help, funding simply is 
not there for the water and wastewater systems that are the backbone of 
any development proposal. Our amendment specifically directs funds 
through the national reserve in an effort to serve the deserving 
families in Alaska in a timely manner.
  In my own state of West Virginia, families in towns such as Pageton, 
Belington, and Crum must deal with the normal family worries of 
providing food, shelter, and a sound education to their children. Can 
you imagine the frustration that these families face every day in 
having to further protect their children from a foul or unreliable 
source of water! I am not talking about water that smells bad or tastes 
funny. I am talking about water that must be boiled before consumption, 
or that flows--when it flows--like opaque brown sludge from their taps. 
This is water not fit to wash a car, let alone to cook with or to mix 
with baby formula. That simply should not be, in a nation as rich in 
resources as we are.
  A good part of the supplemental provides assistance for disaster 
recovery in other nations. This amendment reaches out to Americans in 
crisis. It gives hope to rural America that a brighter future lies 
ahead, a future flowing as bright and clear as the water out of their 
tap.

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