agency the natural resources conservation service the st lawrence seaway development corporation the national oceanic and atmospheric administration and the tennessee valley authority on the afternoon  june sixteenth the subcommittee will hear testimony from the corps of engineers international boundary and water commission and the agency for toxic substances and disease registry with respect to the prisons but it let me start by saying that change his family come and for most of the says here this morning it is a welcome change only a year ago i was ten deaths in the budget requests for the previous administration and not adequate to meet the nation's needs today's message is much more optimistic at least with respect to investment in the nation's growing wastewater infrastructure needs and the commitment to clean safe and secure water for all american for environmental protection agency the president this school year twenty thousand and request ten point five billion dollars the greatest level of funding requested for the agency since its inception and almost three point five billion more than last  seven and one that renews the federal commitment to meeting the nation's growing wastewater infrastructure and the administration needs to be commended for producing a budget that for the most part restores the fun program although that ministrations requests an increase in the funding for the program the budget request has revised downward the number of sites that will be cleaned up in the current fiscal year from thirty five sites twenty in addition the estimated number of superfund construction complete sites for fiscal year twenty eight is only twenty two site this is an every slight increase in was abandoned under the last administration allow for increase in the number of cleanup and return to the goal of polluters paid another area of the budget that needs improvement is a request for the natural resources conservation service watershed survey and planning programs and is watershed in prevention operations program the fact that the president's budget eliminate funding for these programs failed to budget continues to commit to a renewal of the physical assets of the seaway as called for in the water resources development act in two thousand and seven this vital corridor between the great lakes region in the atlantic september thank you madam chair let me begin by saying that i support the president's efforts to control federal spending however the agency programs that we are examining today are truly investments in america these are important programs that benefit our economy and improve the quality of life for our citizens while i believe we must be diligent in our oversight of these agencies to be sure that programs are run effectively and efficiently i do not support cutting programs or flat funding programs that are proven that have a proven record of providing economic benefits it's inevitable that the ministrations parties and congressional priorities are not always conscious but for the environmental protection agency and the national oceanic and atmospheric administration programs of fall within the jurisdiction of the subcommittee i like to think that we have the same goals protecting our environment in a cost effective way the administration's budget proposal for fiscal year two thousand and ten continues a long trend of under investing in the nation's water infrastructure as a result the general condition of the water and infrastructure and water resources has declined while i applaud the administration for increasing requests for the s clean water state revolving loan fund the super fun and brownfields programs for budget or flat right compared to previous funding levels these are important programs and might get contaminated areas fit for redevelopment many of the smaller and easier cleanup projects have already been done so the remaining work tends to be more complex and more expensive to complete i do not and i do have a serious concern with the administration is proposing to reinstate the superfund taxes to the superfund hazardous waste site cleanup program these punitive superfund taxes unfairly pain lies those who are not responsible for the pollution at the superfund sites under this proposal the superfund taxes would be levied on many companies and industries such as financial insurance real estate retail and wholesale tried and service businesses that have absolutely no connection to superfund site or to any environmental cleanup superfund should remain a recovery statute not punitive one on those who feel the nation's economic engine cost recovery vance's the polluter pays principle not taxing innocent businesses shifting the burden to those who had no part in the site contamination simply unfair unwarranted another one of the program that has virtually been ignored by the administration is a small watershed program of the natural resources conservation service this program provides small cost efficient projects that protect our water and our land in rural america under the administration's budget the president proposes to terminate the watershed in flood prevention programs and essentially flat fund the watershed rehabilitation program the st lawrence seaway development corporation is a transportation agency that manages the u s portion of the st lawrence seaway while the founder requests for year two thousand and ten may address the immediate operation and maintenance needs i'm concerned about the long term viability of the  corporation does not have the funds to invest in a major rehabilitation but this vital link between the cities of the great lakes and the global marketplace the tennessee valley valley authority does not rely on appropriations since it is self financing the great lakes are indeed a national treasure lake charles ninety five percent of the u s surface fresh water and are the largest system in search of fresh water on this planet in addition to offering recreation and transportation options the great lakes also provide more than thirty million people with drinking water unfortunately the health of the great lakes is threatened by aquatic invasive species contaminated sediment non point source pollution and habitat l failure to protect and restore the lakes now would result in more serious consequences in the future in addition to increasing cleanup costs since being elected to congress i have championed great lakes restoration efforts and i am encouraged that the president's budget and the bus original resolution congress passed both include four hundred seventy five million for the great i expressed ration initiative although this amount to still far short of what is needed to promptly destroy the great lakes it is a very significant down payment we now have to work with a pro prater's and the senate tune sure that this initiative is for the funding we particularly need to ensure th legacy act is fully authorized one hundred fifty million dollars i look forward to hearing more from eyewitnesses about how this great lakes restoration initiative will be implemented thank  a representative of senate five percent of south carolina schools i'm especially focus on e p a s beach water quality program this program supports state and local efforts to monitor water quality at our nation's beaches something that is critically important for of solid waste and emergency response u s environmental protection agency washington chief david white natural resources conservation service u s supplier of agriculture washington administrators calista or five point five billion which is about fifty three percent of the agency's budget also represents an increase of almost three billion dollars over forty two thousand and nine levels and will enable in collaboration with our state local and tribal partners to advance our mission of protecting human house in the environment and specifically to make america's waters clean safe and secure e p a has made progress in protecting and improving water quality however many chant challenges remain the f y twenty ten budget request will help to address these challenges by supporting our core water programs and by providing increased funding for a number of key priorities in the remainder of my brief summary remarks i would like to highlight three of these key areas sustainable infrastructure and two of our priority geographic areas the great lakes and the chesapeake in terms of infrastructure investment our clean water state revolving finding drink drinking water state revolving find provide affordable loans to local communities to finance public waste water systems and other water quality projects as well as drinking water systems in the case of the drinking water fund the f one twenty ten budget request includes two point four billion for the clean water state revolving fund this critical infrastructure program would preserve and create jobs and find approximately a thousand clean water projects the funds were also prioritized green infrastructure water and energy efficiency and environmentally innovative projects for state local and tribal governments the budget also includes significant increases for tribes and united states territories to address their significant i met water quality needs the budget also fully fund the cooperative agreements for the water security initiative which will provide a proof of concept for enhancing the security of our water infrastructure e p a will also work with state and local partners to develop sustainability policy including management and pricing for future infrastructure funded through the state revolving fines to encourage conservation and to provide adequate long term funding for future capital needs for the great lakes we know that this  valuable aquatic resource provides drinking water food recreation and transportation to about twenty five million americans the f y twenty ten president's budget request provides four hundred seventy five million dollars for the great lakes restoration initiative a coordinated multi agency effort which focuses on critical challenges including toxic substances invasive species near shore health non point source pollution habitat and wildlife protection and restoration e p a has worked closely with its federal partners to target funding to the highest priority problems and opportunities in the great lakes and to ensure that there is increased collaboration accountability and transparency in our work the chesapeake bay program which is authorized by section one seventeen of the clean water act is a collaborative regional partnership that has been working to restore the base in one thousand nine hundred eighty three the president's thirty five million dollar budget request will foster implementation of the chesapeake action plan advance efforts to reduce pollution from agriculture development waste water and air deposition and support  and the state's work to develop the nation's largest and most complex total maximum daily load for the entire chesapeake bay watershed additionally the chesapeake bay program will work closely with the rest of the p a and other federal partners to implement the ambitious plans announced in the chesapeake bay executive order which the president signed in may twelfth in conclusion if the as office of water takes the responsibility of protecting and improving the nation's water is very seriously america's water is a public trust and national water program is committed to innovative solutions that protect and improve the nation's water quality promotes water efficiency and ensure environmentally sustainable water and wastewater infrastructure e p a looks forward to continuing our work with this subcommittee and to accomplish these important national water program goals i'll be happy to respond to your questions thank you very much thank you madam chairman i'm pleased to be here today to discuss the president's twenty ten budget request and in particular i'll discuss superfund brownfields and other programs under the responsibility of the office of solid waste and emergency response and with your permission i'll summarize it and offer the full testimony for the record the president's request of ten point five billion dollars for twenty tend to carry s mission represents a thirty seven percent increase over our two thousand and nine budget and the highest level ever for the agency as you observed i'm pleased to say that brownfield cleanup and redevelopment is one of the administration's environmental priorities the twenty ten budget request provides one hundred seventy four point seven million dollars for the brownfields program a five million dollar increase from our two thousand and nine an active level that includes eighty seven million dollars for brownfields program assessment cleanup revolving loan fund and job training grants turning to superfund we continue to protect human health and the environment by cleaning up uncontrolled house at its waste site and conducting actions to mitigate immediate threats to human health the president's budget provides one point three billion dollars for the superfund program and it maintains super funds remedial cleanup program at essentially the same level as the two thousand and nine a cted level in two thousand and eight we obligated four hundred sixty two million dollars of appropriated state ca share and potentially responsible parties settlement resources to conduct cleanup construction and post construction work at superfund sites that included more than fifty five million dollars to begin construction at sixteen new super fund projects at fifteen national priorities with sites turning to homeland security the two thousand and ten budget rep requests fifty three point five million dollars with that money we will continue to concentrate on key areas including laboratory capability and decontamination capability it will help strengthen our responder base through training and exercise opportunities for our response support corps and incident management team volunteers as well as the base full time response workforce turning to the oil program our budget request provides eighteen point four million dollars the oil spill program focuses on preventing oil spills from occurring reducing the hazard of exposure to people on responding to spills when necessary together with the coast guard we  evaluate thousands of spills annually to determine if assistance is required on average we either manage the spill response or oversee the response efforts that private of private parties at about two hundred fifty to three hundred boil spill sites per year subject to your question that concludes my testimony thank you very much thank you very much a chief david way well greetings madam chairwoman it's an honor to be here ranking member distinguished  members of the subcommittee this is a heck of a hearing are a lot like impressive going to visually he did a about three programs and give you a little overview of what we've done with some recovery act money first one is watershed flood prevention that two statues one from forty four one from fifty four we've done about two thousand watershed projects the small ones that were mentioned earlier across the country but levon thousand structures if you look at the total amount of money since one nine hundred forty seven and i didn't normalize this number this is just added up about six billion dollars and for this investment we get about one point five billion dollars a year in benefits and flood years almost this program has almost completely or completely been earmarked agency has very little or no flexibility in this and i guess i would just simply echo the ranking members words sometimes priorities collide and this is one of those instances we do expect these projects to continue many of them because they do enjoy local support and sorry for the little handmade photos but if you look at pages sixteen and seventeen on this you're going to see some rain dry rain dikes these were taken in the floodplain of the red river valley the flooding this year and these are projects we can actually do with other programs to protect these farmsteads these are pure water quality because if that water gets in there you've got chemicals pesticides fuel the wellhead for the producer and we can do those types of projects with other programs the second program is the emergency watershed protection program this is our cleanup removing debris stabilizing banks for tornadoes hurricanes ice storms volcanoes you name it in two thousand and eighty we're very generous with us in the two supplementals i think  gave like four hundred eighty million dollars to this program we have about sixty seven million left in that account and that number changes all the time is money is returned and more requests go out so the president's budget really doesn't propose to we have sixty seven million left my judgment barring some awful calamity that should be adequate and if something terrible doesn't happen this body has always responded for america regardless of where it occurs and we would that would certainly be an option to fund it in the future third program watershed rehabilitation this is this is this is a little concerning for me these eleven thousand structures many of them were built fifty years ago and they were had a design life of fifty years every day for the next twenty years a watershed structure will reach the end of the choose to live every day for the next two decades and we've got to fix these things things wear out metal rust concrete degrades we've had another problem with these is that what you have built in a cotton field in georgia is now a subdivision outside  atlanta and any time you have people build below one of these structures it automatically becomes a high hazard structure we've got to go in there and upgrade these things and that's done under this program as well president's budget does propose a small increase for that forty hundred forty million this was the agency's discretion to on how this was allocated one hundred forty five million went to watershed operations we were able to fund eighty one projects at twenty six states and even one in the northern mar s which are they will be great for the coral reef outside that island with watershed rehabilitation we had fifty million dollars we funded twenty seven projects in eleven states and then the last one was on the emergency watershed billion in applications forty two hundred applications of that we were able to fund two hundred eighty nine for the money we had available in that program there's four members of the subcommittee who have projects i think only one of them is here mr griffin three projects were funded in his floodplain easements and there's a couple of photos in here that kind of shows there's one graphic one from ohio shows five or six houses right below a dam  that will be relocated i think speired or nearly expired i appreciate your time thank you very much administrat good morning chair and members of committee thank you for having us here today to talk about twenty ten budget requests with your permission i will submit my written statement for inclusion in the record and simply talk to some of the points  thousand jobs four point three billion dollars worth of salary every year shippers about three point six billion dollars a year cost or otherwise would be passed on to consumers so  given an area of the country that we all recognize economically going through great challenges we think it's more important than ever that the seaway do its job properly and in order to do the job properly we need to renew the assets that make up the seaway see where was built fifty years ago there really hasn't been an asset renewal program that will ensure that it does its job and stays open and there is not a catastrophic failure so we're very pleased last year when the bush administration included for the first time an eighty three percent increase in our budget for asset renewal and very pleased that the president has decided to continue that program in this budget and we believe that if we can continue that over the next ten years we are sixty five projects that we want to find that we will have to see whether that will be able to serve the country for the next fifty years as it has in the past this year also we are very hopeful that we will have some reforms passed that will allow maritime to be used more as a means of relieving congestion from road and rail harbor maine as tax reform is essential for that that serves as a real barrier allude a little bit to the role that we play in terms of vitamin a protection for the great lakes congressman ehlers thoughts about is the only waterway in the united states where every ship coming in has to go through a checkpoint  which is which is where we do inspections in montreal and for the first time in the history of the seaway we now have a set of regulations that requires salt water flushing for all of the ballast tanks that come into the sea way upstate new york in the middle of july and obviously anyone who has an interest in joining us for that celebration we need more than welcome to have thank you manager thank you very much  thank you madam chair and good morning it's a pleasure to be here on behalf of the twelve thousand women and men of noah who provide science service and stewardship to the country every day i'm jack dunnigan i'm know as assistant administrator for oceans and coast and the director of the national oceans service no we work to protect the lives and livelihoods of americans and provide products and services to the benefit of our economy our environment and the public safety of the nation but i would like to do this morning is to highlight some of the programs that help fulfill our responsibilities for understanding and protecting and restoring coastal and marine resources i would like to ask my full written statement be included  record madam chair and if it's ok i'll just summarize some of the high points i'd like to begin by talking about some of the recent things that we've done in two thousand and eight that we think are of interest no in many ways  about whether in hurricanes and we had two major hurricane events to respond to in the gulf of mexico in two thousand and eight hurricanes gustava and ike no responds you know immediately as soon as a storm is passed by providing aerial images to aid area emergency responders by surveying waterways so that we can open those from obstructions and providing real time storm data for not equal charting and for recovery we also respond to all spills and in two thousand and eight we got to deal with both the cosco busan of spill in san francisco bay as well as the new orleans guard barge collision of d m nine thirty two on the mississippi river and in those cases we did our hard work to provide trajectory predictions to prioritize cleanup and restoration activities to do injury assessments and to initiate restoration planning we do a lot of work in the area of marine debris and in two thousand and eight we developed and implemented partnerships to turn derelict fishing gear into energy on the east coast building on a program that we had started in hawaii and we estimate that every one ton of net fishing nets that are processed can generate enough electricity to power a home for almost a month so there's a real opportunity here we reported last year on a couple of major intense harmful algal bloom events in the eastern florida coast off the florida panhandle and in the coastal regions of alabama and mississippi and we worked last year to help reduce the impacts of invasive species by improving the understanding ballast water management practices on ships and b integrating our national benthic inventory website with the u s geological survey's non indigenous aquatic speed these database we continue to work with our transportation support information systems especially our ports program that provides real time information to vessel operators moving in and out of the ports of this country so that they can know with a lot of accuracy exactly how much water they have underneath the keel and how much clearance they have underneath that bridge that's right up ahead  looking towards the twenty ten budget request there are some very interesting things in there that i think the committee will want to look at we have an increase requested of one point four million dollars for our oil spill program so that we can do some further modeling to develop a three dimensional or oil spill model that can be used both by the responding agencies and for recovery we're seeking an additional amount of two point seven million dollars in our harmful  forecasts so that we can create a national system right now most of our efforts are focused in the eastern gulf of mexico and we'd also like to work towards developing a national had the event response capability our invasive species program is not seeking an increase in the president's budget this year but we will continue to work hard in this area there's about two point seven million dollars in there and we intended here to be preventing and controlling ballast water modeling the effects of invasive species food webs in the great lakes and yes it no we do recognise that the great lakes are oceans too and we'd also like to proactively assess and manage threats that are brought on by invasive species we need an additional one point two million in the president's budget to focus on increasing our hydrographic surveys we have high priority hydrographic survey needs around the country that we work hard both with our own assets and with the private sector  to fill out and get the information that mariners need so that they can operate safely in our waters in conclusion madam chair i know as i'm a great aggress we think to address our mandates and fulfill our missions over the last year these efforts will continue in two thousand and nine and we ask the committee to support the president's two thousand and ten budget request for noah's programs where we provide products and services that benefit the economy and the environment and the public safety of our nation thank you very much madam chair thank you very chairwoman johnson ranking member bozeman members of the committee it is an honor to come before you to discuss the budget of the tennessee valley authority on behalf of t v a we appreciate the oversight and support provided by this committee as a corporate federal agency t v is financially self supporting through its operations as the nation's largest public power provider in accordance with the direction of congress a pays its own way by using proceeds from power sales to pay wages maintain assets service debt and sons stewardship and economic development activities t v s mission is carried out in three areas energy environment and economic development t v a provides electricity for about nine million people through wholesale contracts with one hundred fifty eight local utilities dva also sells power directly to about sixty large industries and federal installations our stewardship responsibilities include integrated management of the tennessee river for flood control commercial navigation water quality and recreation we are in the process of finalizing our budget for and ten the proposed budget at this time assumes revenue of thirteen point six billion from the sale of electricity operating expenses of eleven point three billion and capital expenditures of two point two billion the two point two billion in capital expenditures includes two hundred twenty three million for clean air projects and about one point four billion for new generating proud including construction of a second reactor at what's of our nuclear plant in spring city tennessee t v s outstanding debt and debt like obligations are estimated to be twenty four point nine billion at the end of two thousand tan an increase of thirty two million from the previous year as you know a large storage facility failed last december twenty second at the kings and fossil plant about forty miles west of not full we're making steady progress in the cleanup and recovery we continue to coordinate closely with the u s environmental protection agency the tennessee department of environment and conservation and other state and local officials all work plans and schedules are being submitted to the e p a for independent review and approval ongoing environmental sampling shows that air quality and drinking water continue to meet state and federal standards and independent engineering firm was retained to determine the route calls and we expect the results later this summer to address any concerns about public health t v a is contracting with oak ridge associated universities to provide communities with access to medical and toxicology expert to have knowledge and experience with the actual materials all work is proceeding as quickly and safely as possible to fulfill s commitment to fully recover the area and do the right thing for the community we estimate the recovery will cost between six hundred seventy five and nine hundred seventy five million dollars excluding regulatory and litigation costs in addition to the kingston recovery t v s working to meet some significant financial and operational challenges like many other areas in our nation the valley is experiencing downturn in industrial activity which is impacting power sales the budget plan  fall assumed power sales would be flat this year due to the onset of the recession now we expect sales to be down from six to eight percent or a about five hundred million dollars in revenue on the plus side we are seeing really through declining prices for fuel on natural gas as a result virtually all of the seventeen percent rate increase in acted last october through t v s fuel cost adjustment has been rescinded we're also seeing really from record drought conditions which has impacted the area for the past three years and we expect e v a s reservoirs to reach their normal summer levels for the first time since two thousand and five looking ahead t v is working to obtain over fifty percent of its generation from clean and renewable energy resources by twenty twenty currently we're evaluating proposals for up to two thousand megawatts of renewable energy and we're increasing our energy efficiency program with the goal of avoiding fourteen hundred mega and twelve the tennessee valley remains a great place to work in live earlier this year two major manufacturers of solar energy materials announced plans to build one billion dollar plants in tennessee the plants together will create about fifteen hundred jobs in conclusion we look forward to keeping this committee congress the administration and the people of the tennessee valley informed of our progress thank you madam chairwoman i'd be pleased to answer any questions that you have please yes congressman there is the fund itself will be resources that have been proposed by the president will be administered through the environmental protection agency but as part of our proposal federal agencies which has been part of a multi year collaborative effort to develop good science and to plan activities in collaboration with the state local and tribal governments and non governmental groups and towards restoring the lake and the governance process if you will really involves for the federal funding agencies collectively identifying the priority projects both governmental and non governmental to address the concerns in the five areas that i mentioned in my opening remarks and then allocating the resources across the agencies the state and local and tribal governments that have a major stake in the restoration of the great lakes let me also just comment i'm very pleased that this is a bipartisan issue as you know president bush issued the activities there in the great lakes exit legacy act which has been in existence now for some six years or so one refrain i've heard repeatedly from the user community and from the environmental community is that it's it was by far the most effective cleanup program ever developed by the congress that raises a question if the legacy act just proved to be so efficient and cost effective should we perhaps look at the superfun purposes and important purpose of the super fund is to address uncontrolled hazardous waste sites and sell them so we have our own scope that we need to pursue sometimes different different kinds of remedies and so it's not always the kind of surface water and sediment right remedy that you would find in a in a great lakes environment frequently it's a soil remedy a ground water remedy and so and occasionally a sediment remedy and we do have some sediment sites but i bet most of the sites are our soil and groundwater sites and so there is considerable difference in the kind of a roche that's needed that's very true but i think one of the big differences when we wrote the legacy act we tried very deliberately to reduce the amount of time that lawyers could spend on each of the cases and put most of the money into direct action also i think a big factor was the car sharing between the federal and state governments and local governments which provided a great inducement for many of the actors to participate fully here with your feet so you might just take a look at blooms two things that i don't think got a lot of attention in your testimony i wonder if you care to expand on that one is ocean acidification as you probably know just i think two days ago the national academies of science from i think over sixty nations focused on ocean acidification is a profound problem associated with c o two in the atmosphere and also i don't think there is a lot of discussion of overfishing both within our regional waters but worldwide can you talk about both of those issues  and how the budget reflects those issues yes sir thank you and thank you for the kind words about no four the ferocious acidification i think with has been a major emphasis within over the last couple of years in looking at what we call long term climate change and what one member i know likes to call lethal over warming and ocean acidification and you know is basically a science agency and so that's what we've been trying to understand better is what are the long term transport mechanisms we know and we've known for decades that the oceans are a carbon sink and as we increase the amount of carbon that's in the atmosphere how much of that ends up being taken up by the ocean and what are the long term concerns one of our concerns is the impact that has on coral reefs because coral reefs around the world are in danger two weeks ago there was a major international commitment to the coral reef triangle initiative in indonesia and the united states although we're not one of the six countries we have substantial presence in the central and western pacific a very strong interest in supporting those efforts so we do recognize the problems in the scientific issues that are associated with the need to address ocean acidification and that's a major part of our research programs as we continue to develop climate and the administration has said that they're in favor of developing a national climate service so that we can improve our ability to respond on overfishing we recognize that there is a major problem with the need to address overfishing  our new undersecretary has engaged in this from the first day that she was on the program the budget contains about another fifty million dollars of new money that would be used to develop management programs that would help to address overfishing around the country including some additional funding for the regional fishery management counsels that help make the plans in the regulations so we're we're committed to following through on those responsibilities and there are pieces in this budget that actively support that  appreciate your tension to both those issues too just a quick suggestions if i may for consideration and and you may have heard me mention these before one is i hope we'll consider the possible use of these unmanned aerial vehicles to patrol our marine reserve reserves conservation areas vehicles can fly for twenty eight hours plus hours they don't require landing strips they don't require pilots except on the ground and i think in a number of areas especially with some international law  like our own marine conservation areas which president bush expanded last year if you look at the galapagos if you look at the south florida we've got major reserves off our coast in the northwest that really we don't have enough petrol and i think that's a viable way an economical way a safer way that haven't pilots out over these distant waters so i hope we can look at that the other thing is as you know i'm a huge fan of aquarius it is a unique resource and i would encourage a nd our scientific agencies to consider sponsoring and supporting a worldwide establishment of aquarius is in some of the major other ecosystems on earth we've got one off key largo but i think there are many other areas where we're different ecosystems where we need that kind of sustained long term tracking so i hope no it will fully fund and add some money to not only seaquarium is currently operational but to actually begin an exploration of whether a few other aquarius type research stations could be made available elsewhere in our country and elsewhere in the world and with that idea about the chair thank our witnesses thank you thank you very much here now reprimand mr have a plan for replacement if this is true those e p a think it is reasonable to ask as a condition of getting financial assistance that we do not repeat this problem and what is e p a doing this year to commuters are effectively managing their asse major organizations representing professionals in water and wastewater communities to develop centrally a set of principles and actions that would characterize what we would consider to be well managed a utilities and many of those addressed the issue of asset management maintaining inventory in your assets making sure that you've got appropriate process to identif y when repair rehabilitation replacement is necessary as well as developing a sound financial program i think the question of whether a plan like that should be required in order to be able to get funding is one that we have not taken a position on but certainly we have encouraged you to ladies at all levels to take those practices into account to adopt asset management environmental management systems as well as sound pricing strategies in order to maintain the future viability of the infrastructure we recognize that this is has been a problem historically within the industry we're seeing much greater acceptance now of these kinds of planning approaches and a much more professional approach to asset sales as well as the work as a result of the work we've done as well as many of our partners and as i said including that of the major professional organization dealing in this area we have been in anyway of them was touring the projected backlog so deficiences cycle so we know for example that the identified needs for waste water as of last survey which was conducted in two thousand and four it was about two hundred in two billion dollars worth of projected investment needs now some of those the finding the mayor of already been identified for so that we didn't try in these surveys to identify what the underfunded portion of that might be  total list of needs on the drinking water side it's over three hundred thirty billion dollars so we have a pretty good handle on roughly a twenty year time horizon each of those areas as what the needs are complete construction on fuel super pond so i guess next year as compared to the previous years what would it be let me let me see if i can help by offering context and then an explanation and then a little more context first the first context is that our construction completion projections have been lowered for only nine the construction completion projection for own nine we've lowered from thirty five down to twenty and we discovered this while we were after we had submitted the own nine budget and so we went ahead and as part of the zero ten budget wanted to make sure the congressional offices knew that we we were projecting lower for own nine and for twenty ten we're projecting twenty two construction completion so it's twenty four zero nine and twenty two for two thousand and ten and this is not the first time we've found ourselves in this situation in the two thousand and seven budget we lowered the projection from forty to twenty four for a much the same reasons after the budget had been submitted we discovered that we didn't think we were going to make the number we had originally projected and we didn't want to mislead anybody along the way leaving a more optimistic number out there while the budget was being executed so the lowering is not that we have actually done less at the moment it's that we think we will end up doing last and we wanted to make sure everybody knew that if five over shot my time i better be careful about going any further and i thank you know my time has expired but if you could just tell me really quick like what percent do you think that we would dress now in a super super fund locations we do have that number on the national priorities list let me get it for you for the record in terms of the overall national priorities list we don't regulate water quantity directly we can't require but we do have authorities that come to play certain kinds of activities you referred to  would regulate that activity and the underground injection control program we are very deeply interested in the issue of water conservation using less to begin with we again don't have regulatory authority in that area but we think as part of a conscientious approach to managing infrastructure appropriately water conservation should play a key role we have a voluntary partnership program water  and so in addition to being able to address the issues of reclamation and reuse we think starting with conservation is a critically important first step as i know you do mention water sense program  was ministrations requests for the water sense program the base budget for that is around two million dollars per year that's sufficient well it's certainly sufficient to maintain the program at the level that certainly meets our needs at the moment level of a program does that include any education to the public yes an important component of water sense is getting the message out to the public both generally in terms of the importance of water conservation as well as making consumers aware that you can achieve water efficiency by making the right product choices and one of the things we do with our many partners is encourage them to use our material our communication material as well as our logos where appropriate in order to make the public aware of the opportunities that are available i'm sorry my time's running of pure chlorine gas although there are other chlorine related products that can also be used but at the end of the day we feel it's important for war to have the ability to weigh the options and make the choices that are protective for their communities and accomplish their goal and at this point in time it appears that there still is a need for the use of conventional chlorine treatment is there any information that is given on a regular basis or water agencies so they are aware of some of the new technology that might be available to them we certainly share with them the information that we have concerning alternatives and the factors to consider in their use as well as  thank you very much madam chair and i appreciate the witnesses and i certainly associate myself with some of the comments from my colleague from michigan the trailers and on the west side of michigan i'm on the southeast side of michigan but we share a princip advocacy for the protection of our magnificent great lakes twenty percent of freshwater drinking supply of the entire world and of course the big issue there and not only in addition to water quality has been invasive species and so  johnson first of all congratulations on the fiftieth anniversary of the st lawrence seaway that's a wonderful thing it's amazing that has happened all these years though most of those years at least two thirds of them we've all been dealing with the experiences that we've had in the negative impact of invasive species so when you said that there is no i wrote this down one hundred percent inspection no more unexpected ballast water coming in the great lakes i thought i was going to get up here and do a little jig that is a fantastic statement to hear and if you could perhaps just flesh that out for me of what is your experience with that now i know you have several hundred salty that come into the great lakes and as they enter in through the st lawrence seaway and if you're doing that kind of inspection could just sort of so i can understand the mechanics of it sure  question we instituted something called an enhanced inspection process in montreal for all ships coming into the great lakes and obviously most of them are soltys that consist until there is technology for treatment we have to do what we can to protect the great lakes and it's been shown in the science flushing ballast tanks the tanks with water in them or not with salt water really does a very effective job of killing the freshwater organisms that would live in the great lakes so every ship coming in needs to flush its tanks out in the open ocean with full water project through our programs through legislation through the congress but in the interim to hear those kind of numbers and what's happening is just fantastic fantastic news so half off i've got about a minute left a quick question for mr shapiro i was writing down some notes as you were speaking as well as about sustainable infrastructure investment the great lakes two point four billion dollars state revolving fun a thousand clean water projects you know in southeast michigan the unfortunate dubious distinction that we have the city of detroit  the sewage treatment and water sewage treatment plant for the city of detroit is probably the worst offender in the great lakes basin because of the huge network it services several million people and we would like to do a better job but for all kinds of reasons not the least of which is g m declaring bankruptcy this week you cannot believe how bad it's good in michigan i do think that our unemployment rate is going to be in depression error numbers probably by september for the state so it is unbelievable what that means there but yet we want to clean up the great lakes can you talk a little bit about perhaps how some of the funding that you're looking at could be targeted toward the worst offender in the in the great lakes basin that wants to be an active participant in clean up our great lakes well the funding that was proposed for the great lakes restoration initiative is specifically for now on infrastructure activities given the problem you described in the need for detroit that money would not be directly available for projects that involved hard infrastructure improvements to the treatment plant or the sewer systems directly clearly the increase in funding for the clean water act water infrastructure are possible sources of funding but that said i recognize that as that pot of money gets allocated across stage using the formulas that we use which are in our statu the amount of money available to any one state is often not large compared to the kinds of needs that a large metropolitan area would have which which might be in the hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars so we recognize it testimony i just have a couple of questions for mr shapiro obviously from the state of maryland and greatly regard what we're doing both around the chesapeake bay but also looking at green  green infrastructure in our state and around the country and it was curious to see that in the president's budget he requests his requests include legislative language and extending twenty percent reserved for green infrastructure projects or projects that propose water energy efficient and efficient improvements to wastewater treatment projects something i very strongly support and members of this subcommittee have also but i've gotten information from maryland that the total amount requested from the recovery act green reserve was approximately one hundred fifty million dollars and yet the state is only required to set aside twenty four point three million dollars of the recovery act allocation and so it's my understanding also that there are other states that are experiencing exactly the same situation more requests for green reserves than the dedicated funding and so i wonder in your review of the implementation of the recovery act whether this is your understanding and whether there's sensors seems to be such demand for green infrastructure that we might want to consider more than simply a twenty percent reserve in the budget to accommodate the need for things that obviously would be energy efficient and the long run thank you congressman woman i think is a very good question and i think frankly the reason for the the twenty percent set aside in the recovery act which we carried forward into the two thousand and ten budget was to provide a hard floor than the twenty states are getting requests above the twenty percent level i think whether you question or whether to raise the floor is a tough one because there are many very important needs that states have in terms of finding infrastructure  and we want them to take a hard look at where they will get the greatest results in terms of water quality sustainability long term energy and water efficiency and it  becomes a hard thing to going to dictate a precise percentages to stage so for the purposes of this budget and again we'll see how things work out as as projects get funded and completed but we're comfortable with the twenty percent floor but i think as you go higher you may be beginning to impact some other non green infrastructure projects that are also critically important to even water quality god so that's a balance that  so we might want to consider ways that we actually could encourage more that investment without imposing it on on some other states just of my time remaining we've had before a number number of times and  curious about your purchase of energy and renewal well energies and wondered if you've thought about or considered and this is completely speculative a feed in tariff program so that you could for example encourage the development of solar and if you know in a very decentralized way if homeowners or communities implemented solar and they had extra they could buy it from you and put it out on a great can you just give me some thoughts about that i can thank you very much for the question is well we have a couple of things going on one is that we do currently have a program that we offer consumers the opportunity to sexually pay extra to fund green power type initiatives and that's a program that's in place we also have committed one hundred ninety two million dollars in our current budget submission to promote other energy efficiency programs similar to that in design such that it would encourage people to conserve energy as well as promote other more efficient energy uses thank you might my time is expired i would only conclude by saying i mean one could look at these kind of  i'm sorry i had to speak on the floor and i didn't get to hear one statements but i do have a couple of questions or comments for mr thomas with t v a mr thomas when when i got here in the very late eighty's at that time t v i was spending thirty four cents of every dollar servicing its debt and i thought it was shameful that the leadership of t v in the late seventy's and eighty's had gotten t v a into such debt we were i did write the federal financing bank and we got worked out a and agreement to restructure some of that debt at the lower right but i'm wondering if the debt that you have now well you brought it down some it's still a tremendous debt how what percentage of t v a's expenses is going to service its debt now and do you have most of that debt into it is it a long debt that won't be affected and that much of the interest rate shoot way up like some people are predicting yes sir thank you very much for the question t v s current debt is twenty four point nine billion dollars and to service that we spend approximately one point four billion dollars in interest each year and that's about ten percent of our total operating budget and so we  are in conjunction with the board adopting a strategic plan in two thousand and seven we had committed to paying down the debt that was associated with the existing assets we have over the life of those assets and and so we're including that in our budget plans and as well most of our debt is termed out in long term bonds and are not subject to the volatility of interest rates are good now the main thing i want to mention is this  it didn't occur in my district but it was close and so i went down and had a briefing and helicopter and everything several months ago this spill that you had these five and a half months ago now and what i saw at that time there was a war room of people and there were there must have been at the even at that times hundreds of people from every conceivable federal state and local agency people from all over the country working to clean up that spill and it seemed to me that everything humanly possible it was being done and the reports have almost all been very very good although it's very expensive  articles about him you know a million dollars a day or something like that but i see in this briefing we've got it says in the most recent submission dated may warn between six hundred seventy five million to prosper nine hundred seventy five million are the estimated that our knowledge is the total estimated cleanup costs for the change to release range between six hundred seventy five million approximately nine hundred seventy five million but here's really what concerns me this estimate does not include the potential cost for additional regulatory actions litigation fines are penalties that may be assessed against are settled by t v a i have noticed that we've had law firms and people coming in from new york and california and all over the country and we've got a lot of people apparently with dollar signs in their eyes who want to make money off of this and as i said you've already had all these people from all will keep in mind that already we're told that because of the energy bill going to through the congress that people's utility bills are going to go away now if we get into just tremendous cos in regulatory fines litigation assessments and settlements it's going to hurt a lot of poor and lower income people in my area because while everyone wants to see the people whose property was affected and made whole and cleaned up as much as possible ninety nine point nine nine nine percent of the people i represent maybe one hundred percent of the people of represent weren't affected by this bill yet i don't want to see their utility bills go way up because of the energy bill that's going through the congress now and t v s expenditures so i hope that you will do everything you can and encourage the other leadership of t v eight to not just come in and make ridiculous settlements because the money is not coming out of your pocket and i hope that the p a will keep in mind that there are a lot of people who are already having trouble paying these utility bills and they won't just let these costs just explode even more it's already at a ridiculous level and nothing thank you very much thank you very much thanks man chairman i just have a couple questions for you mr green if you could what's the current number of federal facilities that are listed on the super funds national priority list interagency agreements with the e p a for the orderly clean up of the facilities what percentage of the current federal facilities do not have inner agency agreements i believe i don't know the percentage i believe we're down to about identified the number proposed a list of toxic sites and where these sites were in the investigation study construction process so my question is can you provide the subcommittee with the current pipeline for both federal facilities not federal facilities the don't see anything else you want to add because you only have five minutes but i have three minutes and fourteen seconds so god bless you said i was kind of like feeling like the guy that ever gets picked for the team that happened to me a lot want to thank you i'm i'm a career person i spent thirty years with this agency and i'm going to slap slap guarantee at everything we do that honest and ethical transparent and fair to conserve this nation's resources we're going to do and you can flat slap take that to the bank well i have i represent a district that goes that has two hundred thirty seven miles on the mississippi river and seven locks and we've had some tremendous flooding there and a lot of devastation i was just in a community called got gulfport that had a population of two hundred fifty it currently has ted and they're trying to disservice by the levee they don't know what they're going to do and there's just a number of things  when you see and you mentioned i think you talked about agriculture in your in your remarks and you see that when some people say well these are just agricultural levies well find that levy is a farmer who has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment land and all those kinds of things so when they can't plant for a year perhaps to i've talked to some of these farmers they're wonderful people but you just see the devastation that they've gone through and it breaks your heart and i toured that town the other day and you know there's a lot of it because  of the breaches so i appreciate every i look at your pictures that they're you know it's nice to see that that work's been done and that people can actually be saved i appreciate what you folks think we're more the mom and pop operations force the big guys on this that i was in new orleans a couple months ago and they took me around to the ninth ward in various places and it it's really shocking the way things are yet today my agency through the emergency watership have a proposal to actually look at taking some of that easement funds we have and some of the restoration funds and to instead of making a hard fast sea wall to actually try to put back the softer gentler natures way you know with you with your longleat with with your native grasses that would that would absorb the impact of the flow and i  was really intrigued by by their proposal and i thought i hopefully will get a vision with more on that thank you very much my second question is directed to mr breen and it deals with locations that i'm concerned with is what's called town where where the predominantly african american community the children are playing on top of the playground that is located inland is contaminated how do you prioritize with respect to providing grant money to clean up the dislocations thank you so there's a superfund program on a brownfields program and they pplicants submit typically once a year we run a process i expect we'll be getting the next process out of the next few months and then there's a panel that evaluates looking at a number of factors what about the kinds of factors you identified particular great need an opportunity for revitalization would be would be strong factors in that in that competition ok thank you very much and my last question his direct to to mr dunn i can louisiana probably produce close to a third of the nation seafood and we have a problem with the death zone at the mouth of the mississippi and i know what plans you have in a trusting the issue of the de excuse me yes thank you very much the there's been an interagency effort that's been underway for the last four years that e p a led to deal with the hypoxia problem in the gulf of mexico the no role in addressing that is to help provide the science and so what we've been able to identify is that the nutrients that are coming down the mississippi river that are ultimately causing that dead zone are really a function of water runoff associated with agriculture and so the question for all of us in the federal government is to figure out ways of dealing with the agriculture industry in a way that can be responsible so that they can do good practices that will alleviate the problem on a continuing basis we find year to year monitoring of the size of the dead zone dr nancy rabelais from louisiana state university is the person that runs that program for us and i was talking to real last week and they're getting ready to go to sea again  later this month to begin their annual studies so our role on that is to help with the science and to collaborate with the e p a and the corps and the other and agriculture department the other federal agencies as well as the state thank you much thank you thank you hawaii however i do have one concern and that is the non funding for the watershed and flood prevention operations program and mr y you testified that most of this money has been twenty four million dollars which leads me to think that perhaps we should actually add funding so that your agency will have they know they can also prioritize projects that's kind of a rhetorical comment before i get to my question for you mr white though i wanted to set the stage of agriculture and why in the most recent past really consisted of huge plantations growing sure kane and pineapple and we're down to basically one sugar plantation you can imagine when these plantations close the huge economic displacement that occurred and dozens of communities thousands of acres became available for other uses and clearly we're not go put development in or pave over all of these acres so why is moving toward is diversified agriculture and in order to do that they need water sugar plantations relied on pretty extensive of irrigation systems in order to to run their plantations and these systems are with a major sources of water for diversified agriculture in hawaii and i also know that why is one of the those states where we have to pretty much ship in all of them eighty percent of our food we can't truck in our food we can rail in our food so we're very dependent very interested and becoming much more self sufficient so we do access this program that you've zeroed out for maintaining our irrigation systems and i note in your testimony that you anticipate that unfinished projects will continue to receive local support but that's just there's not enough local money it takes millions of dollars to maintain these vast water systems so if you have some other program that we could access and instead of the watershed and flood prevention operations program i'd like to hear that otherwise you know i would hope that we reconsidered zeroing out of this program you know if i would have known what company made rolaids i would have bought stock in them last week because this is the one question that i didn't fear it until the ranking member gave me the perfect answer in that sometimes priorities collide and you certainly do have that option to reconsider and i'm well aware that while he does make use of earmarking these programs and it's primarily is for irrigation systems to ensure your  farmers have to have an adequate water supply you've got some interesting land ownership patterns there and a lot of people will not actually qualify for some of the hardcore ag programs because of the reconsider anything ma'am thank you and the other that i'm glad glad that you apparently have an awareness of some of the really unique situations and circumstances in hawaii and one of the reasons that we're able to use this particular program for our for what we need is because they have flexibility there are a lot of other programs sort of programs that do not meet the particular needs of the unique needs of hawaii but this is one that has been and that's the we understand that in in recent years no it has received appropriations to fund ship for testing a balanced water treatment systems and can you tell us the status of the testing and what results among the issues that we've had to deal with in terms of implementing the recovery act i think we've probably spent more time and more debate on how to interpret guidance but because the those type of provisions had not been opposed to well before to infrastructure and because as the recovery act implemented a buy america approach it was different from some of the  earlier by american legislative provisions that had been in place it really charted to new ground for us and we are at the point now where we have guidance out of we're continuing to get by other countries especially companies in canada and mexico kind of using the market in north america as being a single market so it's caused a lot of challenges in the end i think we'll be able to get the project started and awarded by that but it has been a challenge for us but i think that's something we really need to watch i know you've got you've got a limited waiver provision or whatever but that's something i think that you need to watch and let us help you know if we need to in the future the under the american recovery and reinvestment act not less than twenty percent of the funds that were appropriated for the clean water state revolving funds are to be used to dress granpa structure water energy efficiency improvements i do you have a do you have a system set up to make sure that the the r we don't have a rating system per se of our regional offices will be reviewing the list of projects identified by stage four of the green infrastructure component  more to make sure that they really are legitimate green infrastructure projects we think that the technology in fact are out there they're proven like with other technologies that i mean it's about these have to choose from  n dealing with waste water issues prudence is advisable in terms of making sure the approaches that are being developed are reflected sound engineering principles we have a lot of guidance out there as do either organizations in terms of how to build things like grain gardens and green roofs and other types of green infrastructure so there is a wealth of very valid technical information available to municipalities and their consultants that will allow them to choose appropriately but we are taking a closer look at green projects and we do typically in reviewing state use plans but on on this the best very quickly i think i'm going to have to get you a more complete answer to your question about the exact status of that project and any reporting requirements that we have for congress we're certainly willing and would love to have the opportunity to work with the committee staff our focus has been on the science and what happens when invasive species get loose in the eco systems and how they can be controlled and we also worked to help develop the type  helpful and that's why i'm glad to see you mr raines say that brownfield cleanup redevelopment continues to be one of your top environmental priorities the budget request one hundred seventy five million dollars doesn't seem like very much for national effort to claim that brownfield i wonder if that really is enough and you might elaborate on how you are able to leverage those dollars also i agree with you that one of the best ways to clean up the contaminated  and address the blighted properties is to consider what the future use of the land will be and i'm especially interested in the whole concept of brownfield to bright field that would link solar energy projects to farmer brown's sales and would you comment on that and tell us what plants and how much of a priority that will mean how much money they might be going to that sort of thing yes thank you very much first on the brownfield  appropriation request as you observed the twenty ten appropriation request is approximately one hundred seventy five million dollars that's a little more than the zero nine and acted i think about five million dollars more but it does come on top of the recovery act appropriation to brownfield which is an extra one hundred million dollars so the own nine ten is really about four hundred  fifty million looking looking at the two years one hundred seventy eight hundred seventy five plus one hundred is all part and of course brownfield is not the only game in town and federal funding is not the only source of funding and so thankfully many states have sibling programs that we work with and in fact an important part of that one hundred seventy five million dollars from the p a is to directly fund state programs that then leverage private dollars and local dollars so there's a lot of of interest in exactly the kind of kind of work that you observed finally the other federal cleanup programs are doing similar tracks with other kinds of size to the superfund program itself hundreds of millions of dollars at the most contaminated sites and the corrective action program cleans up typically on going to see what is for chemical chemical plants so there's a lot of work on the net on the land cleanup program on brownfield strip right fields we are working on this and we're looking for collaborating with the department of energy's national renewable energy lab and realm where we hope we can map all the contaminated facilities across the country at least those that have federal involvement in them and match that up with the renewable energy opportunities including solar which which you mentioned but perhaps others as well so that these facilities could be turned from something where a community concern to a source of community pride as i have a great solar especially in nevada provides a real opportunity i know a number of years ago in the legislature of nevada asked bonser the state brownfield bail and at that time nobody knew much about it wasn't a very appealing name at one very sexy like other legislation but i think it makes a big difference that lab very supportive of what you're doing allen thank you very much question mr shapiro my understanding is e p a is currently reviewing about one hundred fifty to two hundred mountaintop removal permits and of the ones reviewed so far roughly ninety percent have been as we go forward it really depends on the mix of proposals that are present the kinds of considerations that weigh in our judgment when we decide to raise issues have to do with  the scope and scale of the impact of the proposed mine the sensitivity of the resources that might be impacted and least our initial assessment of the degree to which damages have been avoided to the maximum extent practicable so i think that although the evidence we have in the first two hundred is sort of the best we have to project into the future we can't guarantee we're not shooting for a specific percentage we're really shooting to identify those that are seriously problematic and to try to address them when you see that you're looking at the ones for this long do you mean that have done the most to look at potential impacts to permit these we sort of focused early attention on those that were furthest along in terms of temporally their readiness for permeating in the view of the cores process and again as we continue to work our way through that backlog we will try to do that no way that kind of respects the amount of time it's taken already to get the permit to where it is is there an issue at all with a lack of funding for oversight that creates a hindrance to your ability to review and suggest alternatives to some of these mountaintop removal situations around appalachian particular  could move faster but i think we're able to juggle the resources that we have and again by focusing on those that are of the highest priority getting the merits of results in terms of our  when you think there might be a specific date to this report will be completed thank you for that question i'm sorry we do believe that it will be sometime towards the end of june but at this point we just don't know the specific date and when i stated later this summer it was intended it would be but there's a likelihood that it could go further and you are planning to submit a report to this committee  cleaning cost yes ma'am that does include some allowance for what the long term remediation call star is as we get further into the the reclamation activities will have a better understanding of what the long term estimate will be but it does include some funding for that so this might not be the total or  move through the work and uncover more activities it could be more or it could be that we can find more cost effective ways as well but this is our current estimate but i do i do believe that it would be subject to change over time as we have more information thank  jobs i believe it's the council of economic advisers has come up with some general guidelines in terms of projecting jobs that would say that roughly for every ninety two projects go into construction and finding out i will be gathering some additional information how many people are actually employed at those jobs but but at this point we don't have a separate estimate thank you very much initiative but operationally it will be managed through the great lakes program office with a lot of interaction and from the office of water as well as the administrators office  can each agency has come up with a specific set of projects that is identified that fit into the overarching great lakes collaboration strategy and that have been agreed to by  consensus process across the agencies as being a important early investment in the context of proposing each of those projects the agencies have had to identify measures of money transparency to the public in terms of how that money is used and identification of clear results and criteria with respect to each of the projects that are being proposed for funding  priority areas and actions that were identified in that report well i have to say i'm very excited about the this opportunity and i think it's it's really important we've heard all the discussion about how important the great lakes are and it's crucial to the future of this nation particularly as water becomes more and more important to the future of our nation so i  wish you well and i hope it all works out and i'm just delighted was with what i've heard thank you very much thank you we're excited to thank you very much that concludes our question let me