Volume 164, No. 119 covering the 2nd Session of the 115th Congress (2017 - 2018) 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.
“INNOVATIVE STORMWATER INFRASTRUCTURE ACT OF 2018” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H6219-H6221 on July 16, 2018.
More than half of the Agency's employees are engineers, scientists and protection specialists. The Climate Reality Project, a global climate activist organization, accused Agency leadership in the last five years of undermining its main mission.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
INNOVATIVE STORMWATER INFRASTRUCTURE ACT OF 2018
Mr. GRAVES of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3906) to establish centers of excellence for innovative stormwater control infrastructure, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 3906
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 ``Innovative Stormwater Infrastructure Act of 2018''.
SEC. 2. STORMWATER INFRASTRUCTURE FUNDING TASK FORCE.
(a) In General.--Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall establish a stormwater infrastructure funding task force composed of representatives of Federal, State, and local governments and private (including nonprofit) entities to conduct a study on, and develop recommendations to improve, the availability of public and private sources of funding for the construction, rehabilitation, and operation and maintenance of stormwater infrastructure to meet the requirements of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.).
(b) Considerations.--In carrying out subsection (a), the task force shall--
(1) identify existing Federal, State, and local public sources and private sources of funding for stormwater infrastructure; and
(2) consider--
(A) how funding for stormwater infrastructure from such sources has been made available, and utilized, in each State to address stormwater infrastructure needs identified pursuant to section 516(b)(1) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1375(b)(1));
(B) how the source of funding affects the affordability of the infrastructure (as determined based on the considerations used to assess the financial capability of municipalities under the integrated planning guidelines described in the Integrated Municipal Stormwater and Wastewater Planning Approach Framework, issued by the Environmental Protection Agency on June 5, 2012, and dated May, 2012), including consideration of the costs associated with financing the infrastructure; and
(C) whether such sources of funding are sufficient to support capital expenditures and long-term operation and maintenance costs necessary to meet the stormwater infrastructure needs of municipalities.
(c) Report.--Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall submit to Congress a report that describes the results of the study conducted, and the recommendations developed, under subsection (a).
(d) State Defined.--In this section, the term ``State'' has the meaning given that term in section 502 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1362).
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Graves) and the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Napolitano) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Louisiana.
General Leave
Mr. GRAVES of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous on H.R. 3906, as amended.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Louisiana?
There was no objection.
Mr. GRAVES of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Bill Shuster; the ranking member, Congressman DeFazio; and my good friend the ranking member of the subcommittee, Mrs. Napolitano, for their work in progressing this bipartisan legislation.
Mr. Speaker, as we know, with the additional development that is occurring in this country, with the additional water and stormwater systems that are being built, heavy rains end up transiting or transferring pollutants, heavy metals, trash, bacteria, and many other things into our water system.
Mr. Speaker, I represent south Louisiana. The watershed that I represent drains from Montana to two Canadian provinces to New York. It is one of the largest watersheds in the world. Of course, all of that stormwater runoff ends up coming down right through my home State and contributes to one of the largest dead zones in the Nation--in fact, the largest dead zone in the Nation--which is not very compatible with us having some of the top commercial and recreational fishing and one of the largest or most productive estuaries in the United States.
So I want to thank Mr. Heck for introducing this legislation, for working with Congressman Katko in putting this together in a bipartisan manner.
What this legislation does is it recognizes that stormwater runoff does actually transfer, or does contribute to pollutants, in our waterways, and it recognizes that this is a problem. But it also recognizes that it is a problem that needs to be solved by local, by State, and by Federal agencies, by Federal officials.
So this legislation creates a new task force to look at innovative financing, to look at new funding streams, to look at how we can do a better job integrating the various funding streams to actually achieve this objective that we all share on a bipartisan basis to help reduce the amount of pollutants and trash and other things that get into our waterways. This is an important step forward.
Mr. Speaker, in a previous life, I managed a large infrastructure program where we built tens of billions of dollars of infrastructure. One of the first things I realized is how important it was for us to look at all the funding streams that are available, and the possible funding streams that are available, pulling those together to make sure that they are being used in a complementary manner, not managed in silos, and certainly not managed in a contradictory or in a conflicting manner.
The gentleman's legislation helps to address that. It helps look at the revenue streams that are available today, whether they are Federal, whether they are State, whether they are local funds, or perhaps even private or not-for-profit, looking at the different regulatory structures that are out there, looking at opportunities for us to achieve this bipartisan goal of reducing pollutants, of helping reduce trash, of helping reduce the dead zone and other adverse outcomes as a result of stormwater runoff from heavy rains.
Again, I want to point out that this is bipartisan legislation, that this passed the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee unanimously, that my good friend from California Mrs. Napolitano worked with us on changes in the committee. I thank, again, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Heck) and Mr. Katko for working together on something that is an important issue, for coming up with a bipartisan solution, and looking forward to ensuring that this passes the House and passes the Senate as well to where we can get it to the President's desk.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mrs. NAPOLITANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, because I rise in support of H.R. 3906, the Innovative Stormwater Infrastructure Act of 2018.
This bipartisan bill, as was pointed out, was introduced by our colleague from Washington, Congressman Heck, aimed at addressing one of the ongoing concerns facing our communities, an unfunded mandate--very unfunded: how to address and pay for controlling ongoing sources of stormwater that empty into our local water bodies.
According to EPA, runoff from urbanized areas is a leading source of water quality impairments on local water bodies. In urban and suburban areas, buildings and pavement cover much of the land and prevent rain and snowmelt from soaking into the ground. Instead, these developed areas rely on storm drains to carry large amounts of water runoff from roofs and paved areas to nearby waterways, and with it, as was pointed out again, high levels of pollution, such as oil, dirt, chemicals, and lawn fertilizers released directly into local streams and rivers.
Congress needs to do more to help communities come into compliance with the goals of the Clean Water Act, the unfunded mandate. We need to encourage the development of new technologies and practices for addressing stormwater runoff. We need to encourage the implementation of cost-effective, low-impact development and nature-based infrastructure alternatives.
Finally, we need to provide additional Federal assistance to communities to help address their local water quality challenges. Many of the communities are small and could not afford them. It will bankrupt them if they have to follow the letter of the law.
Mr. Speaker, while H.R. 3906, as introduced, would have addressed some of these challenges, the bill was modified by the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. This modification removed the authorization of a new EPA stormwater grant program and replaced it with a new study on how existing sources of Federal, State, local, and private funds are being used to address local stormwater challenges.
As amended, H.R. 3906 would direct the EPA administration to partner with Federal, State, and local agencies and stakeholders in the creation of a new stormwater infrastructure funding task force. This new task force will look at funding and affordability issues related to the construction, rehabilitation, operation and maintenance of the stormwater infrastructure necessary to meet the goals of the Clean Water Act.
The task force will be required to inventory the available public and private sources of funding for stormwater infrastructure and to assess how the use of these sources of funding might affect the affordability of the infrastructure to a municipality, which sometimes is floundering.
While there may be several financing options available to communities to address local stormwater challenges, the actual cost of these options to a community may vary greatly.
For example, it is far cheaper for a community to obtain a Federal grant for water infrastructure than a loan, but it may also be more affordable for a community to borrow from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund than to borrow the same amount from the private market. So the question is not simply about whether funding is available to the community, but is that funding also affordable to the community.
I expect that the results of the task force will show how the Federal Government needs to be an active player in financing affordable stormwater infrastructure. Perhaps this information will guide future Congresses to take a greater role in financing our water infrastructure challenges.
Mr. Speaker, while I am disappointed that this legislation does not provide additional Federal resources so desperately needed to address our local water infrastructure challenges, the bill is a very good first step in further refining the scope of the stormwater challenges facing our Nation.
I am pleased to support the bill, and I heartily urge all my colleagues to join me in supporting it.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GRAVES of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mrs. NAPOLITANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Heck).
Mr. HECK. Mr. Speaker, pretty simply put, this bill is about addressing the single largest source of water pollution in America, which is stormwater runoff.
It is a nationwide issue from D.C., to Los Angeles, to Milwaukee, to Louisiana. But it is also one that is acutely felt in my home State of Washington, because there, it really does rain a lot. When that rain falls, the rain runs off the roofs. The rain runs down the streets. The rain runs into the storm drainage system. Along the way, it picks up all sorts of nasty, toxic stuff that has been alluded to earlier, stuff like fertilizers, metals, oils, and pesticides. That stuff, all that bad stuff, runs into our lakes and our rivers and, ultimately, in my region of the country, into Puget Sound, which is the largest estuary, by water volume, in the United States.
It has been estimated by scientists that stormwater accounts for up to 80 percent of all water pollution. Gone are the days of the easy-fix solutions of point-source pollution, where we could just pass a law saying: You can't do that anymore. Figure it out.
This is a lot more difficult. It is a lot more decentralized. It is a lot more pervasive. Frankly, it is no less harmful.
And it hurts not just our environment. Let's be clear, this hurts our businesses as well, especially those that depend on clean water.
In our State, we have a robust shellfish industry that employs thousands of people. Stormwater can kill a salmon in a matter of hours. We actually have time-lapse films from underwater showing this, and it is not very much time that has elapsed. This isn't something where they ingest the metal, and then months or years later they die. You can literally watch them die as the stormwater hits the water.
And they are fundamental. Salmon are fundamental to the economy and the culture of the Pacific Northwest and especially to the Native people, who have depended on them since time immemorial.
Salmon support, in fact, in our region of the country, a $30 billion a year economy.
Salmon are also the prey of choice of our beloved southern resident orcas, which we are precariously close to losing altogether. Frankly, we can't save the orcas if we don't save the salmon, and we can't save the salmon if we don't save Puget Sound, and we can't save Puget Sound if we don't deal with stormwater runoff.
Every region has its own story. The gentleman from Louisiana told his most eloquently, and I thank him, about how stormwater is punishing our waterways and, along with it, our way of life and our economy.
That is why State and local governments are implementing green stormwater infrastructure, like rain gardens and permeable pavement, and are building new gray stormwater infrastructure to reduce combined sewer outflows. But that is not enough. It is not enough by a long shot.
{time} 1715
State and local governments are stretched thin, and that is why we need the Federal Government to step up and do its partnership role in this.
Back in my State, we estimate that the stormwater problem could be solved with $19 billion in investment between now and 2036; and, frankly, almost all of that is in the Puget Sound region, 98 percent.
That is a lot of money and that is why H.R. 3906 is an important first step to help the experts and the stakeholders come together and come up with innovative ways not to be duplicative and to think outside the box.
Mr. Speaker, I conclude by thanking Chairman Shuster; Ranking Member DeFazio; along with Subcommittee Chairman Graves; Ranking Member Napolitano; my colleague and my friend from New York, Congressman Katko; and their staffs for their work on this bill. I appreciate their help to bring greater attention to the problem of stormwater runoff.
But let's be clear: We have to do more; we have to do a lot more. I look forward to continuing to work with the committee to increase the Federal Government's partnership role in tackling this urgent threat, which, again, is the number one cause of water pollution in America.
Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of the bill.
Mr. GRAVES of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mrs. NAPOLITANO. Mr. Speaker, just one last word, I think this is a very important bill. We have been dealing with the stormwater issue for at least 7 years in my area, and because it is an unfunded mandate, the cities are crying out for help. I think the two cases set forth by my colleagues point out the need for Federal help.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote for this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. GRAVES of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, Congressman Heck recently brought up the shellfish industry. Just this week, the Louisiana Oyster Task Force is coming to town. We are going to be meeting with them, talking to them about this and a number of other priority issues because their industry has been impacted by water quality and many other challenges.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to say that this legislation helps to make sure that all of the various levels of government, together with our nongovernment partners in the private sector and the not-for-profit organizations that are out there, that we are all working together; that we are ensuring that the regulatory structure that is out there is actually complementary to this effort to help ensure clean water not just now, but for generations to come; that we are using better technology; that we are using better mechanisms, such as vegetative plantings and buffers and other things, to ensure that we are not polluting our waters but that we are cleaning them; that we have safe drinking water; that we have safe, productive ecosystems for generations to come.
Mr. Speaker, I again want to thank Congressman Heck, Congressman Katko, my friend Congresswoman Napolitano, and many others who were involved in this legislation. This is going to help us to ensure that the various funding streams that are out there, that we are using them in a complementary manner, not in a stovepipe manner.
Mr. Speaker, I again urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 3906, as amended, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Graves) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 3906, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
The title of the bill was amended so as to read: ``A bill to direct the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to establish a stormwater infrastructure funding task force, and for other purposes.''
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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