Volume 141, No. 47 covering the 1st Session of the 104th Congress (1995 - 1996) 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.
“CLEANUP THE GREAT LAKES” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E598 on March 14, 1995.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
CLEANUP THE GREAT LAKES
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HON. STEVE C. LaTOURETTE
of ohio
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, March 14, 1995
Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, on Friday the 10th of March, I joined Congressman Quinn of Buffalo and Congressman Oberstar of Minnesota to introduce two pieces of legislation crafted to protect and enhance one of the world's most valuable natural resources--the Great Lakes. Representing over 90 percent of our Nation's fresh water supply, the Great Lakes' importance to our region's health and economy cannot be overstated. Currently, the Great Lakes supports a $4.5 billion recreational fishing economy.
Unfortunately, historical pollution found in the sediments of Great Lakes rivers and harbors remains a severe impediment to our shipping and recreational opportunities, threatens fish and wildlife resources and places human health at risk.
Mr. Speaker, my first bill, the Assessment and Remediation of Contaminated Sediments [ARCS] Reauthorization Act, will amend the Clean Water Act section 118 to continue the demonstration of innovative technologies to remediate contaminated sediments in Great Lakes rivers and harbors that was originally authorized in the 1987 amendments to the Clean Water Act.
The first ARCS program provided valuable demonstrations of technologies at the pilot scale that now need to be validated for commercial use. In the reauthorization, the Environmental Protection Agency's Great Lakes National Program Office will also consider new strategies for sediment removal and containment such as those being demonstrated at the Ashtabula River and Harbor in my congressional district in Ohio. To date, the formation of a new partnership among Federal, State, local government, and industry has been successful in avoiding a new Superfund designation and will lower cost and shorten the timeframe for cleanup. This is a success story that needs to be repeated throughout our country.
The second bill, the Great Lakes Federal Effectiveness Act, provides for enhanced research coordination efforts among the many Federal, State and Canadian parties across the Great Lakes Basin. By evaluating our current efforts against projected goals we can then prioritize among the agencies to ensure the best Federal investment while avoiding costly duplication of effort.
It is appropriate that I dedicate the Great Lakes Federal Effectiveness Act to the memory of Peter Seidl. As Secretary to the International Joint Commission's Council of Great Lakes Research Managers, Peter pioneered the concept and was instrumental to the drafting of this legislation. On May 7, 1994, Peter was on an environmental mission for the World Bank when his plane was lost over the Andes mountains enroute to La Paz, Bolivia. To date, the most extensive search and rescue effort in the history of South America has been unable to locate his plane.
While friends and family pray for Peter's safe return, I wish to memorialize his extraordinary efforts on behalf of the Great Lakes in service to both his homeland of Canada and his friends and colleagues in the United States.
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