•HRES 797 IH 
economic, and ecological importance to the United States, 
considering— 
(1) one in three people in the United States receives 
drinking water from systems that draw supply from 
headwater, intermittent, or ephemeral streams; 
(2) according to an Environmental Protection Agen-
cy report, streams provide the majority of water to most 
rivers and ‘‘transport sediment, wood, organic matter, 
nutrients, chemical contaminants, and many of the orga-
nisms found in rivers’’; 
(3) chemical, physical, and biological processes in 
streams can convert nitrogen and other nutrients, pre-
venting them from causing downstream harm; 
(4) wetlands prevent and minimize flooding by stor-
ing as much as 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 gallons of water 
per acre; 
(5) wetlands and other waters in the floodplains of 
rivers and streams help prevent pollution from reaching 
downstream waters; 
(6) three-quarters of fish harvested commercially de-
pend on wetlands; 
(7) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
report that ‘‘[a]bout 91 million people over the age of 16 
swim in oceans, lakes, and rivers each year in the United 
States’’; 
(8) approximately 37 percent of water withdrawals, 
or 118,000,000,000 gallons per day, are used for irriga-
tion, with 52 percent of that amount being taken from 
surface waters; 
(9) a recent study estimated that wetlands world-
wide provide ecosystem services, like flood prevention and 
pollution 
filtration, 
worth 
more 
than 
$47,000,000,000,000 per year; 
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•HRES 797 IH 
(10) fishing and other water sports contribute 
$175,000,000,000 annually to the American economy and 
support more than 1,500,000 jobs; 
(11) companies often need clean water in their in-
dustrial processes or as a component of their end prod-
uct, such as craft beer brewers that depend on a reliable 
source 
of 
clean 
water 
and 
add 
approximately 
$76,000,000,000 annually to the national economy while 
supporting more than 500,000 jobs; 
(12) according to one study, the ecological restora-
tion economy, which includes mitigation for harms to 
waters due to discharges of dredged or fill material, ‘‘di-
rectly employs∼126,000 workers and generates∼$9.5 bil-
lion in economic output’’ per year, which ‘‘supports an 
additional 95,000 jobs and $15 billion in economic output 
through indirect (business-to-business) linkages and in-
creased household spending’’; 
(13) over 318,000,000 people visited United States 
national parks to recreate and be inspired by thundering 
waterfalls, streaming geysers, desert springs, ocean 
beaches, and jeweled lakes, generating $40,000,000,000 
for the United States economy and over 330,000 private 
sector jobs; 
(14) Environmental Protection Agency reports that 
the Great Lakes contain ‘‘84% of North America’s sur-
face fresh water’’ and ‘‘about 21% of the world’s supply 
of surface fresh water’’; 
(15) restoring and protecting the Great Lakes and 
their tributaries also protects a $6,000,000,000,000 re-
gional 
economy 
and 
the 
1,500,000 
jobs 
and 
$62,000,000,000 in wages directly connected to the Great 
Lakes; and 
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(16) the Great Lakes and their tributaries also fa-
cilitate nearly $16,000,000,000 in annual spending by 
residents and the 37,000,000 hunters, anglers, bird 
watchers, and other tourists who visit the region for 
recreation; 
Whereas water pollution and the loss of water resources can 
cause catastrophic harm to communities’ health and eco-
nomic strength, for example— 
(1) a harmful algal bloom in western Lake Erie in 
2014 prompting a three-day shutdown of Toledo, Ohio’s 
drinking water supply, affecting approximately 500,000 
people; 
(2) a spill of a toxic chemical into the Elk River in 
Charleston, West Virginia, causing drinking water for ap-
proximately 300,000 people to be cut off for several days; 
(3) outbreaks of blue-green algae and red tide in 
Florida causing widespread harm to businesses, and have 
killed substantial numbers of aquatic animals over mul-
tiple years, with 2018 being particularly severe; 
(4) the Tennessee Valley Authority’s coal ash waste 
pit near Kingston, Tennessee, experiencing a mammoth 
structural failure and releasing more than a billion tons 
of waste into the Emory and Clinch Rivers in 2008, and 
a 2019 analysis found that similar pits around the coun-
try routinely leak and contaminate nearby groundwater 
and surface waters; 
(5) beaches in multiple States, including Mississippi, 
New Jersey, Washington, and New York, being forced to 
close this year due to outbreaks of algae that are com-
monly fueled by nitrogen and phosphorus pollution; 
(6) intense flooding occurring in places, like Hous-
ton, Texas, where wetland destruction is believed to have 
contributed to the severity of the flooding; and 
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•HRES 797 IH 
(7) many areas of the United States are expected to 
experience worsened drought conditions with climate 
change, making preservation of water resources more 
critical; 
Whereas the Clean Water Act dramatically slowed the rate of 
wetlands loss in the United States, from more than half 
a million acres annually in the 1950s to approximately 
80,000 acres annually in the late 1990s; 
Whereas the quality of numerous water bodies has substan-
tially improved since the adoption of the Clean Water 
Act, including the Charles River in Massachusetts, the 
Chesapeake Bay, and the Great Lakes; 
Whereas despite the improvements brought about by the 
Clean Water Act, the United States still faces major 
water resource and pollution challenges, including— 
(1) according to the most recent State data sub-
mitted to the Environmental Protection Agency— 
(A) 53 percent of assessed rivers and streams 
do not meet one or more water quality standards, 
which are established to ensure waters are clean 
enough for specific uses like fishing and swimming; 
(B) 71 percent of assessed lakes, reservoirs, 
and ponds are impaired; 
(C) 80 percent of assessed bays and estuaries 
are impaired; and 
(D) 72 percent of assessed coastal shoreline 
waters are impaired; and 
(2) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
report that the increasing frequency of harmful algal 
blooms is associated with increasing temperatures and 
levels of nutrients in United States waters; 
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Whereas the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2017 In-
frastructure Report Card gave the Nation’s wastewater 
infrastructure a grade of D+; 
Whereas the most recent Clean Watersheds Needs Survey re-
port to Congress identified at least $271,000,000,000 in 
capital needs for wastewater, stormwater, and other clean 
water infrastructure; 
Whereas concerns about the condition of the Nation’s waters 
consistently rank as one of the most acute environmental 
worries, with 80 percent of respondents in a March 2019 
Gallup Poll indicating that they worry a great deal or a 
fair amount about pollution of rivers, lakes, and res-
ervoirs; 
Whereas the United States Commission on Civil Rights rec-
ommended further study and analysis of Federal laws in-
cluding the Clean Water Act to analyze gaps in civil 
rights protections, and found, ‘‘EPA’s definition of envi-
ronmental justice recognizes environmental justice as a 
civil right, fair treatment and meaningful involvement of 
all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or in-
come with respect to the development, implementation, 
and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and 
policies’’; 
Whereas Federal and State agencies have detected per- and 
polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), man-made chemicals 
that have known risks to human health and the environ-
ment, in tap water and groundwater in 49 States; 
Whereas experts estimate that more than 100,000,000 Amer-
icans may be exposed to drinking PFAS in their tap 
water and it continues to be a growing emerging contami-
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•HRES 797 IH 
nant nationwide that threatens clean water in the United 
States; 
Whereas the Environmental Protection Agency has initiated 
numerous administrative actions that collectively would 
eviscerate the Clean Water Act and other safeguards for 
clean water, including— 
(1) repealing science-based protections for streams, 
wetlands, and other waters, and excluding millions of 
miles of streams and tens of millions of acres of wetlands 
from the Clean Water Act’s pollution control programs; 
(2) easing restrictions on wastewater plants to au-
thorize them to release partially treated sewage during 
rainstorms; 
(3) refusing to develop regulations mandated by the 
Clean Water Act aimed at avoiding and minimizing spills 
of hazardous substances; 
(4) weakening rules about siting, operating, moni-
toring, and closing pits where coal ash and other coal 
combustion waste is dumped; 
(5) exempting polluters who harm waterways if their 
discharge first travels through groundwater from the 
Clean Water Act’s discharge permitting program; 
(6) restricting Environmental Protection Agency ex-
perts’ authority under the Clean Water Act to stop 
dumping projects that cause unacceptable harms to water 
bodies; 
(7) delaying and weakening toxic pollution discharge 
limits for powerplants; and 
(8) curtailing States’ and Tribal Nations’ rights 
under the Clean Water Act to review federally permitted 
projects and impose conditions or reject the project, as 
appropriate, to prevent harm to their waterways; and 
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Whereas the United States remains far from achieving the 
objective of the Clean Water Act, putting at risk critical 
resources that provide enormous value to the country, 
and the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed ac-
tions would substantially worsen those conditions: Now, 
therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives encour-
ages the Environmental Protection Agency to— 
(1) maintain and strengthen, not attack, re-
quirements that keep United States waterways 
clean; 
(2) end any ongoing administrative actions to 
weaken existing Clean Water Act regulations and 
other requirements protecting the Nation’s waters; 
and 
(3) initiate actions to reverse any already-com-
pleted administrative actions that weaken the Fed-
eral Government’s implementation of the Clean 
Water Act and other requirements protecting the 
Nation’s waters. 
Æ 
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