Volume 159, No. 169 covering the 1st Session of the 113th Congress (2013 - 2014) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“COMMUNITY FIRE SAFETY ACT OF 2013” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H7371-H7373 on Dec. 2, 2013.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
COMMUNITY FIRE SAFETY ACT OF 2013
Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3588) to amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to exempt fire hydrants from the prohibition on the use of lead pipes, fittings, fixtures, solder, and flux.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 3588
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 ``Community Fire Safety Act of 2013''.
SEC. 2. EXEMPTING FIRE HYDRANTS FROM PROHIBITION ON USE OF
LEAD.
Section 1417(a)(4)(B) of the Safe Drinking Water Act is amended by inserting ``fire hydrants,'' after ``shower valves,''. SEC. 3. EVALUATION OF SOURCES OF LEAD IN WATER DISTRIBUTION
SYSTEMS AND ALTERNATE ROUTING SYSTEMS.
The Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall--
(1) consult with and seek the advice of the National Drinking Water Advisory Council on potential changes to the regulations pertaining to lead under the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300f et seq.); and
(2) request the Council to consider sources of lead throughout drinking water distribution systems, including through components used to reroute drinking water during distribution system repairs.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Johnson) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio.
General Leave
Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials in the Record on the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Ohio?
There was no objection.
Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, many Members think that the suspension calendar is reserved for unimportant legislation. That is not the case today. It is reserved for bills that need no amendments and on which more than two-
thirds of the House agrees. The Community Fire Safety Act of 2013 meets those two tests.
Sometimes when we budget our time, we ask ourselves, what should I work on first, the urgent or the important? H.R. 3588 is both urgent and important. It corrects a problem that first surfaced in October of this year, but which impacts all water utilities and firefighting units in the United States effective next month.
Water utilities have made it clear that they have two choices come January 4: fail to comply with Federal law, or leave gaps in critical fire hydrant service. No one should ever face that choice.
Here is the background. On January 4, 2011, the President signed into law the Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act. This law prohibits the manufacturing and installation of pipes, fittings, and fixtures that have lead content of greater than two-tenths of 1 percent, but it exempts specific items, including tub fillers and shower valves. There is also a general exemption for pipes, fittings, and fixtures where the water is not anticipated to be consumed.
The effective date of the law is January 4, 2014, the beginning of next month. I am told that when Congress wrote this law in 2010 and the President signed it in 2011, the issue of fire hydrants never entered the conversation--nor did the EPA suggest that fire hydrants were covered, at least not until October of this year, 10 short weeks before the law takes effect.
On October 22, the EPA announced that because fire hydrants are occasionally, but rarely, used in the stream of human water consumption, they are not exempt under the act. This means any hydrant manufactured or installed 33 days from now must have a lead content that meets the statutory standard.
The EPA's conclusion was based on a technical reading of the statute. Because the rule's announcement takes effect in early January, the solution is this brief but important legislation.
The worry for water utilities and firefighters is that hydrants can break without warning, often as a result of vehicular accidents. Winter is a busy time for replacing hydrants due, in part, to freezing road conditions. But neither water utilities nor firefighters can tolerate hydrants that are not certified to meet strict performance parameters. Hydrants must never get stuck closed and should never leak.
Why do hydrants contain tiny amounts of lead in the brass alloys in their valves and other parts? Because that alloy gives a cleaner fit that doesn't leak and doesn't get stuck. Confidence that a hydrant meets this standard is crucial.
Mr. Speaker, even though a couple of manufacturers claim to have developed hydrants that can meet today's lead-free standard, none of them claims independent verification of the lead-free standard, much less proof that the extreme low-lead hydrant will work for fire safety. If such hydrants are developed and later certified, communities will certainly always be free to choose them. But in the meantime, the 2010 law is unforgiving.
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It does not allow exemptions for even the least frequent and briefest exposures to water that may pass through a hydrant. Communities that never allow any human consumption from a hydrant will be barred from installing hydrants that today are in stock and ready to meet emergency repairs.
The risk to human health from lead in water is from long-term exposure. That is why there is no scientific data showing health effects from people drinking water from hydrants. But there are documented times when firefighters have arrived on the emergency scene only to find the hydrant is out of service. This leads to tragedy we can and must avoid.
If shower valves and tub fillers should be exempt--and they are--
let's exempt hydrants so there are no gaps in fire safety. I urge a
``yes'' vote on H.R. 3588.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to be here with my colleague from Ohio
(Mr. Johnson) in support of H.R. 3588.
As we heard, 3 years ago, Congress passed important legislation to reduce lead in drinking water supplies by eliminating a very significant remaining source of lead--our water delivery infrastructure. The Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act amended the Safe Drinking Water Act to address the high levels of lead documented in the drinking water in many communities.
Lead is a very dangerous contaminant, and it is especially dangerous to our children. It is retained in their bodies and leads to a host of chronic problems. We need to remove lead from our drinking water, but we do not need to regulate fire hydrants to achieve this worthy and important goal.
Fire hydrants are rarely used to provide drinking water, and those rare occasions are during emergencies--for instance, the break of a water main. And, when these rare events occur, flushing the hydrant is sufficient to ensure that lead and other contaminants are not conveyed in the water.
As sometimes happens, Mr. Speaker, laws have unintended consequences. When Congress passed the amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act 3 years ago, I doubt anyone intended to have EPA regulate fire hydrants.
EPA hosted a webinar on this issue recently. The agency consulted stakeholders from the hydrant manufacturing industry, municipalities from across our country, State and city regulatory agencies, and water supply companies. These sources provided the Agency with information to demonstrate that regulating hydrants would be expensive to implement, and it would deliver virtually no additional public health benefits.
Closer to home, I heard from two municipalities in my district, Latham and Colonie, both in Albany County. Their local leaders were very concerned about the expense of replacing their inventory of fire hydrants and about problems that could arise if they were unable to service and replace hydrants in a timely manner.
As we all know, fire hydrants are a vital part of the safety infrastructure of every community, large or small, across this great country. I am told the average cost is as high as $2,000 per hydrant, if not more. Most communities keep a reserve inventory so hydrants can be replaced as needed. Without this fix, communities across the country would be spending millions to replace inventories of working hydrants.
Not only would communities have to replace their inventory of hydrants, but there is a real question about the availability of lead-
free alternatives. The supply of lead-free hydrants is still small, and some newer designs have yet to be tested and certified fully.
Well, we certainly do not need to impose unnecessary costs on our communities across this country. We can fix this problem, and we are moving forward with a sound and effective solution today.
H.R. 3588 adds fire hydrants to the list of plumbing fixtures and other components of water infrastructure that are exempted from the requirements to reduce lead. H.R. 3588 is a simple, bipartisan bill that provides a straightforward correction to the law. It will save our communities money and time, two very important commodities.
In addition, the bill contains a provision requiring the EPA Administrator to consult with the Drinking Water Advisory Council on options for reducing lead in our drinking water in a cost-effective manner. Hopefully, this dialogue will provide more cost-effective options for achieving a worthy goal: cleaner, safer drinking water.
Again, I want to commend our colleague, Representative Johnson, for his work on this legislation and thank him for working together with me to ensure that communities can concentrate on efforts that will bring true public health improvements to our citizens and avoid unnecessary expenses that achieve no real benefits.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I have no further Members who wish to speak on this issue. If my good friend is prepared to summarize, I am prepared to close.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, I have no other speakers here on our side.
Again, I want to thank the gentleman from Ohio; I want to thank Chairman Upton of the Energy and Commerce Committee and Ranking Member Waxman of the same committee for expediting this very important bill. Again, I urge all of our colleagues to support this worthy legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I too want to say thanks to my good friend and colleague, Mr. Tonko, for his support of this legislation. It may seem trivial to some; but trust me, it is not trivial to the many communities who are sitting on stockpiles, literally millions of dollars worth of current hydrant technology that would have to be replaced as a result, and that money just going down the tubes. I, too, urge a ``yes'' vote on H.R. 3588.
I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Johnson) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 3588.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further proceedings on this motion will be postponed.
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