[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2668 Introduced in House (IH)]
108th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2668
To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to direct the Great
Lakes National Program Office of the Environmental Protection Agency to
develop, implement, monitor, and report on a series of indicators of
water quality and related environmental factors in the Great Lakes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 8, 2003
Mrs. Miller of Michigan introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to direct the Great
Lakes National Program Office of the Environmental Protection Agency to
develop, implement, monitor, and report on a series of indicators of
water quality and related environmental factors in the Great Lakes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Great Lakes Controlled Data
Collection and Monitoring Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds that--
(1) there are no comprehensive, regularly-collected data
that reveal whether the water quality or related environmental
factors of the Great Lakes have improved as a result of efforts
to remediate and protect the Great Lakes;
(2) that lack of data was confirmed in May 2003 in a report
by the General Accounting Office that concluded that existing
data were inadequate to assess the overall progress of
restoration efforts in the Great Lakes; and
(3) without those data, it is impossible to determine
whether--
(A) progress is being made toward achieving the
goals contained in the Great Lakes Water Quality
Agreement between the United States and Canada; or
(B) Federal and State water quality standards and
remediation programs are effective.
SEC. 3. GREAT LAKES WATER QUALITY INDICATORS AND MONITORING.
(a) In General.--Section 118(c)(1) of the Federal Water Pollution
Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1268(c)(1)) is amended by striking subparagraph
(B) and inserting the following:
``(B)(i) Not later than 2 years after the date of
enactment of this clause, the Administrator, in
cooperation with Canada and appropriate Federal
agencies (including the United States Geological
Survey, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, and the United States Fish and Wildlife
Service), shall develop and implement a set of science-
based indicators of water quality and related
environmental factors in the Great Lakes, including, at
a minimum, measures of toxic pollutants that have
accumulated in the Great Lakes for a substantial period
of time, as determined by the Program Office.
``(ii) Not later than 4 years after the date of
enactment of this clause, the Administrator shall
establish a Federal network for the regular monitoring
of, and collection of data throughout, the Great Lakes
basin with respect to the indicators described in
clause (i) and collect an initial set of benchmark data
from the network.
``(iii) Not later than 2 years after the date of
collection of the data described in clause (ii), and
biennially thereafter, the Administrator shall submit
to Congress, and make available to the public, a report
(in addition to the report required under paragraph
(10)), that--
``(I) describes the water quality and
related environmental factors of the Great
Lakes (including any changes in those factors),
as determined through the regular monitoring of
indicators under clause (ii) for the period
covered by the report; and
``(II) identifies any emerging problems in
the water quality or related environmental
factors of the Great Lakes.''.
(b) Authorization of Appropriations.--Section 118 of the Federal
Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1268) is amended by striking
subsection (h) and inserting the following:
``(h) Authorization of Appropriations.--
``(1) In general.--There is authorized to be appropriated
to carry out this section (other than subsection (c)(1)(B))
$32,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2004 through 2008.
``(2) Great lakes water quality indicators and
monitoring.--There are authorized to be appropriated to carry
out subsection (c)(1)(B)--
``(A) $5,000,000 for fiscal year 2004;
``(B) $7,000,000 for fiscal year 2005;
``(C) $9,000,000 for fiscal year 2006; and
``(D) $11,000,000 for fiscal year 2007.''.
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