Amendment No. 1461 to Amendment No. 1460

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I call up amendment 1461, and I want to thank Senators Collins, Gillibrand, King, Rounds, and Peters for cosponsoring this amendment and also thank Chairman Carper and Ranking Member Capito for their support for the amendment.

As we all know, you can't put a price on safe drinking water, but for too many communities and too many households in this country, costs are a real barrier to contamination.

This bipartisan amendment will help States address pollution not just from regulated contaminants like arsenic but also from unregulated contaminants like PFAS. It does this by expanding an existing grant program to help small and disadvantaged communities, not just those defined as underserved. It would also help households with private wells.

We have to provide more tools to ensure that all Americans have access to clean, safe drinking water. My amendment would do just that. I urge its adoption, and I would be very happy to have this done by voice vote.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I rise today to speak in support of Senate amendment No. 1461, which I have offered to expand a key program that helps address contaminated drinking water. But before I do, I would like to commend Senator Duckworth, Chairman Carper, and Ranking Member Capito for developing the bipartisan legislation currently before the Senate, the Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act. This bipartisan bill will invest more than $35 billion for water infrastructure across the country. This can't come soon enough for States like New Hampshire.

Like most States, New Hampshire is suffering from aging infrastructure, much of it is between 50-100 years old. And unfortunately, our State government and municipalities simply do not have the ability to fully fund the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to address the rising costs of failing infrastructure, population growth, and changes in regulation. Communities across the country are facing similar financial challenges.

That is why Congress must pass sweeping legislation to tackle our Nation's water infrastructure problems, build climate-resilient systems, and ensure that all Americans have access to clean and safe water. The Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act is a good first step, and I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do more.

The amendment I am offering today with Senators Collins, Gillibrand, King, Rounds, and Peters will help more people impacted by drinking water contaminants, including those who rely on wells. While America's drinking water is among the safest in the world, unregulated contaminants, such as PFAS, are increasingly being detected in drinking water across the country. This is a problem in particular for New Hampshire's southern cities and towns, including Merrimack, Londonderry, Portsmouth, and Dover.

It is not just unregulated contaminants. Pollutants and known carcinogens like arsenic, radon, iron, and manganese have been found in New Hampshire groundwater sources at levels that threaten public health. According to the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, approximately 98,000 Granite Staters who utilize private wells have unsafe levels of arsenic in their water.

As I have heard again and again, discovering that you have been drinking contaminated water can produce a range of emotions, from anger and fear to guilt. It is heartbreaking to hear stories of parents worried about what their kids' exposure will mean for their health. I am committed to finding every opportunity to improve this situation. That is why I am proposing to expand a key part of the Environmental Protection Agency's Assistance for Small and Disadvantaged Communities Program to help States respond to water contamination in more places.

I want to make clear that States have flexibility to support a range of projects to address contaminants including in underground sources of drinking water, which will help households relying on well water. In New Hampshire, a little over half of our population gets its drinking water from public water systems that provide water from lakes, rivers, and wells. The remainder get their water from residential wells. All of them deserve healthy and safe drinking water. My amendment will help do just that. And I urge my colleagues to support it.

As I said at the outset, this bill we have before us today is a good step in addressing our water infrastructure needs, but there is more to be done. For instance, Congress must address outstanding issues affecting water infrastructure financing. The 2017 tax law repealed a longstanding incentive under section 118 of the Internal Revenue Code known as the Contributions in Aid of Construction exemption, or CIAC. Communities across New Hampshire have been planning projects for years that are now threatened by these tax changes. For example, the Hampstead Area Water Company reports that it is facing a $1.5 million tax bill on an infrastructure project aimed at providing more customers access to clean drinking water. And what is worse, these tax increase may be passed on to utility customers, increasing their water bills. That is why I have filed an amendment to undo these harmful changes, so that our Tax Code once again encourages these critical investments. I look forward to working with my colleagues to fix this.

We must also provide increased support for water systems in small rural communities across the country that are struggling as a result of this pandemic. The financial impacts of COVID-19 on systems serving 10,000 people or fewer is estimated to be at least $3.6 billion. Yet no support for small rural water and wastewater systems has been included in COVID relief legislation to date. That is why I have joined with Senator Tillis to introduce the Emergency Assistance for Rural Water Systems Act, legislation that would provide critical funding to small and rural communities during this challenging time.

Finally, we must address PFAS contamination and its effects on our communities. As many of us know, PFAS chemicals impact drinking water sources in and around military bases, manufacturing sites, airports, and other places across the country due to their widespread use in firefighting foam and consumer products. In my State of New Hampshire, the city of Portsmouth closed a major water supply well at the former Pease Air Force Base due to PFAS in the drinking water. And several communities in southern New Hampshire are struggling with groundwater PFAS contamination near the Saint-Gobain plant in Merrimack. Residents near the Coakley Landfill Superfund site in North Hampton and Greenland are concerned about high levels of PFAS found in nearby surface waters.

We owe it to the American families in New Hampshire and across the country who live and work near sites contaminated by these materials to invest at the scale necessary to fix the problem. That is why I have championed legislation, the PFAS Testing and Treatment Act, which would deliver robust Federal resources to support State efforts to address PFAS through remediation and clean up. I hope to work with the chairman and ranking member, as well as House and Senate leaders, to move this proposal forward.

Access to safe, clean drinking water is essential. While I am only seeking a vote on amendment No. 1461 today, I will continue to work on all of these issues. I look forward to passage of the Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act and continuing to work to address these outstanding issues in future infrastructure bills.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source