Political Quotes

“My amendment will revise section 301(h) of the Clean Water Act to allow the city of Anchorage which has a waiver of secondary treatment to be relieved of the 30-percent BOD removal requirement. This requirement puts a tremendous burden on the city. EPA requires the Anchorage Wastewater Utility to remove 30 percent of organic material from sewage before it can be discharged. Meeting this requirement for Anchorage has been extremely difficult because sewage inflow is very clean. In 1991, the utility was approached by 2 fish processors who wanted to discharge 5,000 pounds of fish guts into the system daily. Anchorage approved the request and it made it easier to meet the 30 percent requirement. The discharge was less clean, but the EPA requirement was satisfied. This is a perfect example of why we need cost benefit analysis in our laws. The cost for Anchorage is $180,000 per year in increased operating expenses. They will be required to spend more than $4 million within the next 2 years. All this while spending $1 million over 6 years to monitor outflows to ensure there is no negative impact from the discharge. Had their been some flexibility in the law, Anchorage could have avoided millions of unnecessary expenditures. I urge support of the amendment.”