Title: Encouraging the Environmental Protection Agency to maintain and strengthen requirements under the Clean Water Act and reverse ongoing administrative actions to weaken this landmark law and protections for United States waters.
Policy area: Environmental Protection

Summary:
This resolution encourages the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to maintain and strengthen requirements that keep waterways clean. It also encourages the EPA to end or reverse administrative actions that weaken requirements protecting the nation's waters.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 797 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 797

    Encouraging the Environmental Protection Agency to maintain and 
 strengthen requirements under the Clean Water Act and reverse ongoing 
administrative actions to weaken this landmark law and protections for 
                         United States waters.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 14, 2020

 Mrs. Dingell (for herself, Mr. Pappas, Ms. Norton, Ms. Kuster of New 
 Hampshire, Mr. Rouda, Mr. Lowenthal, Mr. Huffman, Mr. Espaillat, Ms. 
 Tlaib, Ms. Moore, Mr. Morelle, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Garcia of Illinois, 
Mrs. Napolitano, Mr. Lipinski, Ms. Blunt Rochester, Mr. Cartwright, Mr. 
 Ruppersberger, Mr. Clay, Mr. Casten of Illinois, Mr. Malinowski, Mr. 
  Danny K. Davis of Illinois, Mrs. Hayes, Mr. Cohen, Ms. Haaland, Mr. 
Johnson of Georgia, Ms. Pingree, Mr. Foster, Mr. Khanna, Ms. Castor of 
   Florida, Ms. Brownley of California, Ms. McCollum, Mr. Soto, Mr. 
    Blumenauer, Mrs. Beatty, Mr. Vargas, Mr. Pocan, Mr. Suozzi, Mr. 
  Quigley, Mr. McGovern, Ms. Slotkin, Mr. Connolly, Ms. Jayapal, Mr. 
  Carson of Indiana, Ms. Roybal-Allard, Ms. Velazquez, Mr. Case, Mr. 
    Larsen of Washington, Mr. Takano, Mr. Smith of Washington, Mr. 
Hastings, Mr. Neal, Mr. Lynch, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, Mr. Cooper, 
 Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Kildee, Mr. McEachin, Mr. DeFazio, Ms. Stevens, Mr. 
Raskin, Mr. Nadler, Mr. Higgins of New York, Mr. Scott of Virginia, Ms. 
  Barragan, Mr. Neguse, Mr. Price of North Carolina, Mr. Moulton, Mr. 
 Sires, Mr. Brown of Maryland, Ms. Wild, Ms. Wexton, Mrs. Trahan, Ms. 
  Mucarsel-Powell, and Ms. Meng) submitted the following resolution; 
       which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and 
                             Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
    Encouraging the Environmental Protection Agency to maintain and 
 strengthen requirements under the Clean Water Act and reverse ongoing 
administrative actions to weaken this landmark law and protections for 
                         United States waters.

Whereas access to clean water is a fundamental human right;
Whereas the Federal Water Pollution Control Act was enacted into law in 1948;
Whereas the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 were enacted 
        with bipartisan support and significantly reorganized and expanded the 
        law, from then on commonly known as the Clean Water Act;
Whereas the Clean Water Act is one of the most important laws in the United 
        States and the Nation's principal safeguard against unregulated 
        pollution or destruction of United States surface waters;
Whereas the Clean Water Act's objective is to ``restore and maintain the 
        chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation's waters'', 
        and it declared national goals of eliminating the discharge of 
        pollutants into the waters of the United States by 1985 and, wherever 
        attainable, ensuring that waters were fishable and swimmable by 1983;
Whereas the Clean Water Act provides strong and comprehensive requirements for 
        the control of pollutants in the Nation's waters;
Whereas the Clean Water Act authorizes Federal financial assistance for building 
        and upgrading municipal sewage treatment plants and other types of water 
        quality improvements projects;
Whereas rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, wetlands, and other waters have enormous 
        public health, community welfare, 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 Agency report, streams 
provide the majority of water to most rivers and ``transport sediment, 
wood, organic matter, nutrients, chemical contaminants, and many of the 
organisms found in rivers'';

    (3) chemical, physical, and biological processes in streams can convert 
nitrogen and other nutrients, preventing them from causing downstream harm;

    (4) wetlands prevent and minimize flooding by storing 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 depend 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 irrigation, with 52 percent of that amount 
being taken from surface waters;

    (9) a recent study estimated that wetlands worldwide provide ecosystem 
services, like flood prevention and pollution filtration, worth more than 
$47,000,000,000,000 per year;

    (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 industrial processes or 
as a component of their end product, 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 restoration economy, which 
includes mitigation for harms to waters due to discharges of dredged or 
fill material, ``directly employs126,000 workers and generates$9.5 
billion 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 increased 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 surface 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 regional economy and the 1,500,000 jobs 
and $62,000,000,000 in wages directly connected to the Great Lakes; and

    (16) the Great Lakes and their tributaries also facilitate 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 economic 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 approximately 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 multiple 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 country 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 commonly fueled by nitrogen and phosphorus pollution;

    (6) intense flooding occurring in places, like Houston, Texas, where 
wetland destruction is believed to have contributed to the severity of the 
flooding; and

    (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 substantially 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 submitted to the 
Environmental Protection Agency--

    G    (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;

    G    (B) 71 percent of assessed lakes, reservoirs, and ponds are 
impaired;

    G    (C) 80 percent of assessed bays and estuaries are impaired; and

    G    (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;

Whereas the American Society of Civil Engineers' 2017 Infrastructure Report Card 
        gave the Nation's wastewater infrastructure a grade of D+;
Whereas the most recent Clean Watersheds Needs Survey report 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 
        reservoirs;
Whereas the United States Commission on Civil Rights recommended further study 
        and analysis of Federal laws including the Clean Water Act to analyze 
        gaps in civil rights protections, and found, ``EPA's definition of 
        environmental justice recognizes environmental justice as a civil right, 
        fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of 
        race, color, national origin, or income 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 environment, in tap water and groundwater in 49 States;
Whereas experts estimate that more than 100,000,000 Americans may be exposed to 
        drinking PFAS in their tap water and it continues to be a growing 
        emerging contaminant 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 authorize 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, monitoring, 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 experts' 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

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 
        actions would substantially worsen those conditions: Now, therefore, be 
        it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives encourages the 
Environmental Protection Agency to--
            (1) maintain and strengthen, not attack, requirements 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-completed 
        administrative actions that weaken the Federal Government's 
        implementation of the Clean Water Act and other requirements 
        protecting the Nation's waters.
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