Clean Water

Like you, I am concerned about our waterways and water quality. Whether it is spending time with my family enjoying the Delaware River that runs along our property, or drinking a cold glass of water on a hot day, we must ensure that our daily activities do not endanger the quality of our water.

Prospects for legislative initiatives to comprehensively amend the CWA have stalled for some time over whether and exactly how to change the law, and Congress has recently focused legislative attention on narrow bills to extend or modify selected CWA programs, rather than taking up comprehensive proposals.

The most prominent water quality issue in the 107th Congress concerned financial assistance for municipal wastewater treatment projects, and this issue is likely to predominate in the 108th Congress, as well. House and Senate committees approved bills to reauthorize the Act's wastewater infrastructure funding program (H.R. 3930, S. 1961), but no further action occurred. At issue is how the federal government will assist states and cities in meeting needs to rebuild, repair, and upgrade wastewater treatment plants, especially in light of capital costs which are projected to be as much as $390 billion over the next two decades.

Several other CWA issues are likely to receive congressional attention, through oversight hearings and possibly in legislative proposals. Among the topics of interest is whether and how the Administration will revise the current program for restoration of pollution-impaired waters (the Total Maximum Daily Load, or TMDL program), in view of controversy over regulatory changes made during the Clinton Administration and continuing disagreement among states, cities, industry, and environmental advocates about program effectiveness and efficiency.

Programs that regulate activities in wetlands, especially CWA Section 404, have been criticized by landowners for intruding on private land-use decisions and imposing excessive economic burdens. Environmentalists view these programs as essential for maintaining the health of wetland ecosystems. These groups are concerned about the 2001 Supreme Court S.W.A.N.K. decision that narrowed regulatory protection of wetlands, as well as recent administrative actions which they believe will likewise diminish protection.

Early indications from congressional leaders suggest that the 108th Congress, like the 107th Congress, will focus on water infrastructure funding legislation. However, it is expected that the key authorizing committees (House Transportation and Infrastructure and Senate Environment and Public Works) will address other legislative priorities such as reauthorization of surface transportation funding and water resources development programs before considering Clean Water Act legislation.

Our Oceans

Like many of you, I enjoy the simple pleasure of visiting the beach with my children on a hot summer's day. However, despite our love for the seas, many of us do not ponder the reality that the seas remain vastly unexplored and are increasingly being threatened. A visitor to our solar system, asked to name the third planet from the sun, would most certainly not name our planet Earth as early land-bound humans did, but rather "Oceania" for the dominating character of its seas. Seventy-five percent of our planet's surface and ninety-five percent of its biosphere is ocean.

Life began in the sea, which is now the home of somewhere between ten and one hundred million spectacularly diverse species. Ninety-seven percent of the planet's water is in its oceans. The oceans are the engines for our terrestrial weather patterns; the highway for international trade and fifteen percent of the protein consumed by humans comes from the sea. Beneath the ocean floor lie unimaginable quantities of oil, gas, coal and minerals. In addition, marine plants and animals possess inestimable biotechnological potential in the treatment of human illness. Coral reefs, sometimes described as the rain forests of the sea, contain uncommon chemicals that may be used to fight diseases for which scientists have not yet found a cure, such as cancer, AIDS and diabetes. While the number of new chemical compounds that can be derived for land-based plants and microbial fermentation is limited, scientists have only just begun to explore the sea's vast molecular potential.

The oceans are our source, our sustenance and the key to our future survival. But the capacity of the sea to absorb our waste and to fulfill our desires is not without limit. Currently, twenty-percent of the world's coral reefs have been destroyed, twenty-percent and counting. Oceans are the dumping grounds for municipal trash, sewage and even nuclear waste and more than two-thirds of the world's marine fish stocks have been fished beyond their level of maximum productivity.

If our children's children are to inherit the oceans' bounty, we must come to understand and manage it far better than we do today. It is out of deep concern that I became a co-founder of the bi-partisan House Oceans Caucus. The Caucus will create a voice within the Congress on oceans issues and will serve as the focal point for increasing the House of Representatives awareness on issues of ocean policy by developing and implementing ocean policy legislation to meet national and international needs. I encourage you to visit often the House Oceans Caucus website. The website will be updated frequently with the activities of the House Oceans Caucus in an effort to address the aforementioned concerns.

Our Forests

In August, President Bush proposed the Healthy Forest Initiative in order to address the deteriorating ecological health of America's forests and rangelands. Last summer wildfires burned over 7.1 million acres of public and private lands, an area larger than the states of Maryland and Rhode Island combined. Twenty-one firefighters were killed battling these fires, tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes and thousands of structures were destroyed.

Forest management is an issue that must be addressed but I stand firmly that we need to implement a prevention policy that will yield the fewest negative environmental consequences. The key aspects of the President's Healthy Forest Initiative will require congressional approval to implement. Rest assured that I will carefully weigh my decisions with regard to national forest management, with the ultimate goal being the preservation of our national treasures.