Twenty-First Century Water Commission Act of 2005

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 135) to establish the ``Twenty-First Century Water Commission'' to study and develop recommendations for a comprehensive water strategy to address future water needs.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 135, the bill under consideration.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

H.R. 135, introduced be my good friend, the distinguished gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Linder), and cosponsored by a wide range of Members from both parties, creates the 21st Century Water Commission to find ways to increase and conserve water supplies. The gentleman from Georgia and his colleagues have properly recognized that water shortages are a common problem throughout the United States.

The goal of this legislation is for a broad-based commission to recommend a comprehensive water strategy that recognizes and upholds the primary role of the States in administering our water laws. The commissioners, appointed by the President and the Congress, would look at ways to improve interagency coordination, eliminate government duplication, create new financing opportunities and improve our Nation's water infrastructure, among other things, all very important goals.

The commission is directed to hold no less than 10 public hearings around the Nation and submit a final report no later than 3 years after its first meeting so that this commission will not drag on forever. The legislation sunsets the commission within 30 days of the final report's submission.

Madam Speaker, there is, and should be, a limited Federal role in these matters since States and localities primarily administer water rights and know the most about them. This bill does not add Federal regulation to the books. It simply creates a mechanism for further dialogue and potential solutions for all levels of government.

This idea has come a long way since it was originally introduced over two Congresses ago. It has been subject to hearings and comprehensively vetted through both the Committee on Resources and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, both of which I have the privilege to serve on.

In fact, last Congress I held a series of hearings on water supply issues, including a hearing on this legislation. The witnesses who testified before my Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment strongly supported greater planning to meet future water needs, involving all levels of government, and supported the 21st Century Water Commission Act as a means to help start that process.

It, like the identical bill passed by the House in the 108th Congress, is the right solution for the right time. It respects the primary role that States play in addressing water resources issues.

I urge my colleagues to adopt this bipartisan bill.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Linder), probably the Member of this body who was the first to recognize the grave importance of water issues in this Nation, the distinguished primary sponsor of this bill. I commend the gentleman for his steadfast and yeoman's work on this legislation, and it should be noted that one of our leading national newspapers just a few years ago wrote a series of articles saying that water would be the oil of the 21st century.

I yield to the gentlewoman from California.

Madam Speaker, let me just close by saying that although this bill is not controversial and has not received a lot of publicity, that should not denigrate its significance. Because of our aging clean water infrastructure, because of water supply problems in many parts of this Nation, and for all of the other reasons that our colleague, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Linder), just mentioned, this is a very important bill. I urge all of my colleagues to support it.

Madam Speaker, I submit the following exchange of letters on H.R. 135 for the Record.

House of Representatives,

Committee on Resources,

Washington, DC, April 5, 2005.

Hon. Don Young,

Chairman, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure,

Washington, DC.

Dear Mr. Chairman: I request your assistance in scheduling

H.R. 135, the Twenty-First Century Water Commission Act of

2005, for consideration by the House of Representatives. This

bill was referred primarily to the Committee on resources and

additionally to your committee.

As the text of this bill is identical to what passed the

House of Representatives under suspension of the rules last

Congress, I ask that you allow your committee to be

discharged from further consideration of the bill to allow us

to pass it again. Perhaps with more time, the Senate will be

able to give it due consideration.

By allowing the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee

to be discharged, you are not waiving any jurisdiction you

may have over the bill. I also agree that in the unlikely

event that this bill becomes the focus of a conference

committee that I will support your request to be represented

on that conference. Finally, I agree that this discharge will

not serve as precedent for future referrals.

Thank you for your consideration of my request. I look

forward to another Congress of extraordinary cooperation

between our committees on matters of mutual interest.

Sincerely,

Richard W. Pombo,

Chairman.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, as the bill's sponsor, I rise to support H.R. 135, the 21st Century Water Commission Act. H.R. 135 will bring together our Nation's premier water experts to recommend strategies for meeting our water challenges in the 21st century.

I would like to thank several Members who have worked with me to bring this proposal to the floor today. First, the gentleman from California (Mr. Pombo), chairman of the Committee on Resources; the gentleman from California (Mr. Radanovich), chairman of the Subcommittee on Water and Power; the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young), chairman of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure; and the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan), chairman of the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment.

I thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Keller), the former chairman of the subcommittee and the ranking member, and the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Napolitano), who worked so hard in getting this bill to the floor in the past Congress.

H.R. 135 was approved in the 108th Congress by a voice vote on November 21, 2003. Unfortunately, the Senate failed to act on the legislation before the Congress adjourned. Creating a comprehensive water policy to meet the needs of the 21st century is a matter of human survival and quality of life for the United States. I am excited about continuing to move this bill through the legislative process early in this Congress.

Water-related issues have been of interest to me for many years. I wrote an article in 1978 that predicted that one of the two major challenges for our country during the next century would be providing enough fresh water for a growing population.

Since that time, about 25 years ago, America still does not have an integrated or comprehensive water policy, even with the hundreds of thousands of Federal, State, local and private sector employees working to solve water problems. The difficulty is that there is little communication and coordination among these experts. If we wait another 10 or 20 years to get serious about meeting the demand for clean water, it will be too late. We must act now to meet these challenges.

As my colleagues are aware, many States across the Nation are currently facing a water crisis or have in the last few years. Once thought to be a problem only in the arid West, severe droughts a few years ago caused water shortages up and down the East Coast. States once accustomed to unlimited access to water realized they were not immune to the problems that the West has experienced for decades.

In addition to drought, aquifers are being challenged by salt water intrusion, crops are being threatened, and our aging water pipes leak billions of gallons of freshwater in cities all over the Nation. For example, New York City loses 36 million gallons per day, Philadelphia loses 85 million gallons per day through leaky pipes.

Let me be clear about one thing. My bill does not give the Federal Government more direct authority or control over water. Rather, this Commission will make recommendations about how we can both coordinate water management issues on all levels so that localities, States, and the Federal Government can work together to enact a comprehensive water policy to avoid future shortages.

The 21st Century Water Commission would be an advisory body, and its recommendations would be nonbinding.

Some of the highlights are these: The Commission will look for ways to ensure fresh water for the next 50 years. The Commission will be composed of nine members appointed by the President and key leaders in the House and Senate. The Commission will look for ways to eliminate duplication and conflict among Federal agencies and will consider new and all available technologies to optimize water supply reliability. The Commission will hold hearings in distinct geographical regions of the United States and in Washington, D.C., to seek a diversity of views, comments and inputs. Not later than 6 months after the first meeting and every 6 months thereafter, the Commission will transmit an interim report to the Congress and to the President.

A final report will be due within 3 years of the Commission's inception. The report will include a detailed statement of findings and conclusions of the Commission, as well as recommendations for legislation and other policies.

The United States cannot afford to reevaluate its water policies every time a crisis hits. Now is the time to get ahead of the issue, and I believe the Commission can serve as a channel for sharing the successful strategies and ideas that will allow us to do so. I ask my colleagues to join me in voting for H.R. 135.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 135, a bill to establish a commission to examine the issue of clean, safe, and reliable water supplies for this generation and for generations to come.

Madam Speaker, water may well be the most precious resource on Earth. The existence of water set the stage for the evolution of life and is an essential ingredient of all life today.

Recognizing the importance of this vital resource, the United Nations designated 2003 as the ``International Year of Freshwater.'' According to the U.N., throughout the world roughly one person in six lives without regular access to safe drinking water, and over twice that number--or 2.4 billion--lack access to adequate sanitation. In addition, water-related diseases kill a child every eight seconds.

In the United States, we have avoided many of these concerns through careful planning and decades of investment in our water infrastructure. Nationally, a combination of Federal, state, and local funds have built 16,024 wastewater treatment facilities that provide service to 190 million people, or 73 percent of the total population.

In addition, 268 million people in the United States--or 92 percent of the total population--are currently served by public drinking water systems, which provide a safe and reliable source of drinking water for much of the nation.

As I noted earlier, clean, safe, and reliable sources of water are critical to this nation's health and livelihood. However, in the past few decades, a series of natural events, as well as, human-induced events have demonstrated that our nation remains vulnerable to shortages of water.

In my own State, we have experienced shortages of snowfall and rain which have had an adverse impact on local water supplies, agriculture, and recreation and tourism, and have contributed to historically low water levels in the Great Lakes. One thing is certain: no area of this country is immune to the threat of diminished water supplies. We must be vigilant in preparing for such occurrences.

This bill is a part of the debate on the very important issue of water resource planning in this country. The gentleman from Georgia, Mr. Linder, has taken an important step in encouraging this debate, calling for the creation of a Federal commission to examine issues related to national water resource planning, and to report its findings on potential ways to insure against large-scale water shortages in the future.

While I believe that the legislation introduced by our colleague is a good starting point, we must be sure to examine fully all of the relevant issues for ensuring adequate supplies of clean and safe water to meet current and future needs.

For example, water resource planning should work toward increasing the efficiency of water consumption as well as increasing the supply of water. Simply increasing the supply of water can be a more costly approach to meeting future water needs, and in any case, merely postpones any potential water resource crisis.

In addition, it is important to remember that issues of water supply are closely related to water quality. Contaminated sources of freshwater are of little use to the Nation's health or livelihood; removing contaminants drives up the overall cost of providing safe and reliable water resources to our people.

In addition, human activities, whether through the pollution of waterbodies from point or non-point sources, the elimination of natural filtration abilities of wetlands, or through the destruction and elimination of aquifer recharge points, can have a significant impact on available supplies of usable water.

We cannot base our future water resource planning needs on the possibility of finding ``new'' sources of freshwater while, at the same time, tolerating practices that destroy or contaminate existing sources. All the water there ever was or ever will be on this planet is with us now; we must spare no effort to be vigilant and careful stewards of that water.

I urge my colleagues to support the bill.

First of all, Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan) for his support and his eloquent presentation of the legislation before us and as well the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Napolitano) in support of this legislation that impacts the State of California, especially Southern California, as it pertains to perchlorate.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 18, the Southern California Groundwater Remediation Act. This legislation passed the House in September 2004, and it was H.R. 4606. Today, I fight to protect Southern Californians from the growing crisis of perchlorate groundwater contamination. I reintroduced this legislation as a long- term solution to help cities in Southern California remove perchlorate from their drinking water and create safe drinking water.

This bill will authorize $50 million for groundwater remediation, including perchlorate cleanup, for most of San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange counties in Southern California. The funds will be managed by the Department of the Interior through the Bureau of Reclamation. Perchlorate is a main ingredient in rocket fuel that has been found in drinking water supplies, lettuce, and even in the milk we drink.

Perchlorate in water supplies is left over from former military sites, defense contractors, and other industries. It has been found in 43 States, including California. Perchlorate has been linked to thyroid damage and may be harmful to infants, developing fetuses, and the elderly. There are 1.2 million women of childbearing age in San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange counties who could be at risk from perchlorate, and we do not want them to be at risk. We want to make sure that there is good-quality drinking water. Perchlorate has been detected in 186 sources in the counties served by the Santa Ana River watershed and has jeopardized the water supplies of over 500,000 residents.

As indicated before, there are 30 wells that have been contaminated in the area. There is a perchlorate plume in the Inland Empire in California that is 10 miles long and is growing every day, and that includes my hometown, which I am a resident of, in Rialto. Perchlorate has impacted the daily lives of all of us, and we want to make sure that there is safe drinking water in the area. We have a legal and moral obligation to provide safe and healthy water to the families and children who drink this water every day.

But perchlorate contamination is more than just a health concern. The economic cost in providing safe drinking water is becoming more and more of a burden on our communities. Ninety percent of perchlorate in water comes from a Federal source. This includes DOD, NASA, and other Federal agencies. Innocent, hardworking families should not have to pay for federally created problems or problems for which no one will take the responsibility.

I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 18, which is a small price to pay for the crisis that has been forced on Southern Californians. I would like to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Pombo) for his leadership and carrying legislation in the northern portion of California to deal with the problems that we have. I would like to thank the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Napolitano), the gentleman from California (Mr. Calvert), the gentleman from California (Mr. Gary G. Miller), and the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) for their support of this critical bill for the health of Southern California.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

(Mrs. NAPOLITANO asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Madam Speaker, we strongly support passage of H.R. 18 which will provide financial assistance for cleaning up contaminated drinking water supplies in the Santa Ana River watershed in Southern California. There have been many problems in Southern California as well as in other parts of the Nation that deal with perchlorate, and this is just but one of

them. We hope that we will be able to shed some light on how we can do a better job of assisting our communities in being able to put that water back to good use, and that is by working with the municipalities.

I commend the principal sponsor of H.R. 18, the gentleman from California (Mr. Baca), for his determination and hard work to get this legislation enacted. I also greatly appreciate the support and leadership demonstrated by the gentleman from California (Mr. Pombo) on this very critical and important matter.

Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to my friend and colleague from Southern California (Mr. Baca) who has been very, very adamant about getting this addressed.

(Mr. BACA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

We have heard my colleague indicate how important the cleanup of water is, and I would urge my colleague from Georgia (Mr. Linder), sponsor of H.R. 135, the Twenty-First Century Water Commission Act of 2005, to consider that as an issue because that is something that affects, like the gentleman stated, 40-some odd States that are beginning to understand the harshness of reality and that is that we have contaminated aquifers and water resources.

So, with that, I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Baca) for bringing that to our attention. I do support the bill and hope my colleagues will do likewise.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.