Volume 157, No. 28 covering the 1st Session of the 112th Congress (2011 - 2012) 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.
“FULL-YEAR CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2011” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E321-E322 on Feb. 28, 2011.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
FULL-YEAR CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2011
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speech of
HON. ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS
of maryland
in the house of representatives
Friday, February 18, 2011
The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1) making appropriations for the Department of Defense and the other departments and agencies of the Government for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2011, and for other purposes.
Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chair, I rise in strong opposition to the amendment offered by Mr. Goodlatte, which would prohibit the use of funds made available by this Act to develop, promulgate, evaluate, implement, provide oversight to, or backstop total maximum daily loads or watershed implementation of these TMDLs for the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
As the Representative of Maryland's 7th Congressional District, I was proud to have worked closely with Maryland Senator Ben Cardin during the last Congress to lead the effort to reauthorize the Chesapeake Bay Program and to instill innovative new approaches into the program that will finally lead to the true restoration of the Chesapeake Bay.
Unfortunately, we were unable to enact that legislation during the last Congress--but the effort to create a Chesapeake Bay program that supports effective clean-up of the Bay will continue.
Fortunately, a number of other processes are already underway that will expand and strengthen the effort to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.
President Obama issued an executive order to guide a renewed and reinvigorated federal clean-up effort shortly after taking office.
And critically, on December 29, 2010, the long-awaited Total Maximum Daily Loads, TMDL, were issued for the Bay--and the watershed states are now developing their Watershed Implementation Plans, WIP.
The TMDLs established for the Chesapeake Bay are specifically required under the federal Clean Water Act. Their development is also consistent with consent decrees in Virginia and the District of Columbia from the late 1990s.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the TMDLs set Bay watershed limits of 185.9 million pounds of nitrogen, 12.5 million pounds of phosphorus and 6.45 billion pounds of sediment per year--
limits that would achieve a 25 percent reduction in nitrogen, 24 percent reduction in phosphorus, and 20 percent reduction in sediment flowing into the Bay.
The TMDLs are tough--but they are realistic about the reductions in pollution we need throughout the 64,000-square-mile watershed to restore the Bay's health.
Over the past decades, the effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay has been largely based on voluntary agreements within and among the states.
Recent assessments of the Bay show us that the pledging of earnest promises, the utterance of heart-felt slogans, and the signing of agreements enforced only by good will have achieved water quality in the Bay that is still rated ``very poor''--even though billions of dollars have been spent in support of these promises.
If we are serious about cleaning up the Bay, we must implement the TMDLs--and the EPA must be fair but insistent in applying these requirements.
It is therefore essential that the TMDL process get off to a fast, efficient, and effective start.
Eliminating funding for the enforcement of the TMDLs is tantamount to arguing that we should continue to allow the Chesapeake Bay to be a sewer--where pollutants running out of storm drains and waste treatment plants, from overly fertilized front yards, and off farm fields collect and create ``dead zones'' where life cannot be sustained.
The Virginia Institute of Marine Science has estimated that 40 percent of the jobs in Maryland and Virginia associated with crabbing were eliminated between 1998 and 2006--an outcome resulting from the decimation of the crab population due to the pollution accumulating in the Bay.
In the face of such losses, a vote against enforcement of the TMDL is a vote that says job losses are acceptable--and that though options are available to restore the Bay, a polluted Bay is good enough.
I urge my colleagues to reject this position by voting against this amendment and in favor of a robust effort to clean the Chesapeake Bay.
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