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Washington, DC -- Congressman John P. Sarbanes (MD-3) voted recently for three critical water quality bills that the Republican Leadership had refused to bring to the House Floor. These bills would authorize billions of dollars to protect American families, preserve the environment, and help cities and states pay for building and improving their water quality infrastructure.
“Fighting to protect our water quality promotes public health, creates jobs, and stimulates economic development,” said Congressman Sarbanes. “These three water quality bills are critical steps in helping to guarantee clean water for all Marylanders. In addition to supporting these bills, I will fight to reject the President’s budget proposal to cut $9,560,000 in clean water funds for Maryland.”
The House of Representatives considered the following bills on the House Floor last week:
• H.R. 720, The Water Quality Financing Act. The Clean Water State Revolving Fund is a vital program for state and local governments that addresses critical water infrastructure needs. Unfortunately, the Republican-led Congress slashed funding for the Clean Water Revolving Fund by 34 percent over the last few years. Now, President Bush is proposing slashing it again. By contrast, the Clean Water Revolving Fund is a top priority of the Democratic-led 110th Congress, and this bill authorizes a total of $14 billion for the fund over the next four years. The Clean Water Fund is critical because it ensures clean water and fosters economic development in local communities by helping pay for building and improving wastewater treatment facilities.
• H.R. 569, The Water Quality Investment Act. There is an increasing problem in many local communities across the country that, after heavy rainfall, sewer systems can overflow – in some cases due to aging sewer systems. This bill is a second bill to improve water quality – by authorizing $1.8 billion in grants to local communities over the next five years to construct treatment works to deal with sewer overflows. This bill is crucial because sewer overflows represent a major public health hazard. It will aid cities and states that find building or improving sewer infrastructure financially impossible without help from the federal government.
• H.R. 700, the Healthy Communities Water Supply Act. This bill is a third bill to improve water quality. It authorizes $125 million for pilot projects to increase an area’s usable water supply – by encouraging innovation in water reclamation, reuse and conservation. The bill will provide funding for new technologies, including ideas like aquifer storage and retrieval and membrane filtering technologies that have the potential to greatly increase our ability to use water more effectively and efficiently.
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