Title: A resolution encouraging the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to maintain and strengthen requirements under the Clean Water Act and reverse ongoing administrative actions to weaken the Clean Water Act and protections for waters of the United States.
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]
[S. Res. 714 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 714

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


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 23, 2020

 Ms. Duckworth (for herself, Mr. Booker, Mr. Merkley, Ms. Warren, Mr. 
  Heinrich, Ms. Harris, Mrs. Feinstein, and Mr. Markey) submitted the 
     following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
                      Environment and Public Works

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


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

Whereas access to clean water is a fundamental human right;
Whereas the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (62 Stat. 1155, chapter 758) was 
        enacted into law in 1948;
Whereas the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 (Public Law 
        92-500; 86 Stat. 816) were enacted with bipartisan support and 
        significantly reorganized and expanded the Federal Water Pollution 
        Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.) (commonly known as and hereinafter 
        referred to in this preamble as the ``Clean Water Act'');
Whereas the Clean Water Act is one of the most important laws of the United 
        States and the principal safeguard of the United States against 
        unregulated pollution or destruction of surface waters of the United 
        States;
Whereas the objective of the Clean Water Act is to ``restore and maintain the 
        chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation's waters'';
Whereas the Clean Water Act 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 waters of the United States;
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 that--

    (1) 1 in 3 individuals in the United States receive drinking water from 
systems that draw supply from headwater, intermittent, or ephemeral 
streams;

    (2) according to a report of the Environmental Protection Agency, 
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 nitrogen and other nutrients from 
causing downstream harm;

    (4) wetlands prevent and minimize flooding by storing as much as 
between 1,000,000 and 1,500,000 gallons of water for each acre of wetland;

    (5) wetlands and other waters in the flood plains of rivers and streams 
help prevent pollution from reaching downstream waters;

    (6) \3/4\ of fish harvested commercially depend on wetlands;

    (7) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 
``about 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 of water withdrawals per day, are used for irrigation, and 52 
percent of water withdrawals are taken from surface waters;

    (9) a recent study estimated that wetlands around the world 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 economy of the United States 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, add approximately $76,000,000,000 
annually to the economy of the United States, and support more than 500,000 
jobs;

    (12) according to 1 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) more than 318,000,000 individuals visited national parks in the 
United States in 2018 to engage in recreation and be inspired by thundering 
waterfalls, streaming geysers, desert springs, ocean beaches, and jeweled 
lakes, generating $40,000,000,000 for the economy of the United States and 
more than 330,000 private sector jobs;

    (14) the 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 the $6,000,000,000,000 regional economy of the Great Lakes 
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 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 the health and economic strength of communities, evidenced by 
        the fact that--

    (1) in 2014, a harmful algal bloom in western Lake Erie prompted a 3-
day shutdown of the drinking water supply of Toledo, Ohio, affecting 
approximately 500,000 individuals;

    (2) a spill of a toxic chemical into the Elk River in Charleston, West 
Virginia, caused a cutoff of drinking water for approximately 300,000 
individuals for several days;

    (3) outbreaks of blue-green algae and red tide in Florida have caused 
widespread harm to businesses and have killed a substantial number of 
aquatic animals over multiple years, with the effects of the outbreaks in 
2018 being particular severe;

    (4) in 2008, the coal ash waste pit of the Tennessee Valley Authority 
near Kingston, Tennessee, experienced a mammoth structural failure and 
released more than 1,000,000,000 tons of waste into the Emory and Clinch 
Rivers, 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, were forced to close due to outbreaks of algae 
that are commonly fueled by nitrogen and phosphorus pollution;

    (6) intense flooding is occurring in places like Houston, Texas, where 
wetland destruction is believed to be contributing 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 the 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 500,000 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, 
        evidenced by the fact that--

    (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 1 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 published a report 
stating that the increasing frequency of harmful algal blooms is associated 
with increasing temperatures and levels of nutrients in waters of the 
United States;

Whereas the 2017 Infrastructure Report Card of the American Society of Civil 
        Engineers gave the wastewater infrastructure of the United States a 
        grade of D+;
Whereas the most recent Clean Watersheds Needs Survey report to Congress 
        identified not less than $271,000,000,000 worth of capital needs for 
        wastewater, storm water, and other clean water infrastructure;
Whereas the condition of the waters of the United States consistently ranks as 
        one of the most acute environmental worries of individuals in the United 
        States, with 80 percent of respondents in a March 2019 Gallup Poll 
        indicating that they worry a great deal or a fair amount about the 
        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 that the ``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 the United States Geological Survey conducted limited monitoring of 17 
        perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (referred to in this 
        preamble as ``PFAS'') in source and treated public water supplies from 
        25 drinking water facilities and found PFAS in all source water and 
        public water supply samples collected;
Whereas a study led by Harvard University researchers found that the drinking 
        water supplies for not less than 6,000,000 individuals in the United 
        States exceed the health advisory of the Environmental Protection Agency 
        for 2 PFAS, perfluorooctanoic acid (commonly referred to as ``PFOA'') 
        and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (commonly referred to as ``PFOS''), 
        and more recent information indicates that more comprehensive monitoring 
        would find that the drinking water of many times more than 6,000,000 
        individuals in the United States contains PFAS at levels that pose 
        significant health hazards;
Whereas the Environmental Protection Agency has initiated numerous 
        administrative actions that collectively would eviscerate the 
        protections of the Clean Water Act and other safeguards for clean water, 
        including--

    (1) repealing science-based protections for streams, wetlands, and 
other waters and the exclusion of millions of miles of streams and tens of 
millions of acres of wetlands from the pollution control programs of the 
Clean Water Act;

    (2) easing restrictions on wastewater plants, authorizing the plants 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 relating to the siting, operating, monitoring, and 
closing of pits where coal ash and other coal combustion waste is dumped;

    (5) exempting polluters who harm waterways from the penalties of the 
Clean Water Act if their discharge first travels through groundwater from 
the discharge permitting program of the Clean Water Act;

    (6) restricting the authority of experts from the Environmental 
Protection Agency 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 power 
plants; and

    (8) curtailing the rights of States and Tribal nations under the Clean 
Water Act to review federally permitted projects and impose conditions on 
or reject a project, as appropriate, to prevent harm to their waterways;

Whereas the United States remains far from achieving the objective of the Clean 
        Water Act by putting critical resources that provide enormous value to 
        the United States at risk; and
Whereas the proposed actions of the Environmental Protection Agency would 
        substantially worsen the risk to critical resources: Now, therefore, be 
        it
    Resolved, That the Senate encourages the Administrator of the 
Environmental Protection Agency to--
            (1) maintain and strengthen, rather than attack, 
        requirements that keep waterways of the United States clean;
            (2) end any ongoing administrative actions that weaken--
                    (A) existing regulations that were promulgated 
                under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 
                U.S.C. 1251 et seq.); and
                    (B) other requirements protecting the waters of the 
                United States; and
            (3) initiate actions to reverse any administrative actions 
        that have already been completed that weaken the implementation 
        by the Federal Government of--
                    (A) the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 
                U.S.C. 1251 et seq.); and
                    (B) other requirements that protect the waters of 
                the United States.
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