Bob Filner: “I want to add one more reason to vote for this bill, and that is because of the provisions which enact an important…”

“I want to add one more reason to vote for this bill, and that is because of the provisions which enact an important agreement to save the drinking water for 25 million citizens in the Southwest United States. These provisions would move the largest uranium mine tailings pile that has ever threatened a drinking water supply in the U.S. The dangerous radioactive waste currently sits only 750 feet away from the Colorado River near Moab, Utah, where it threatens the drinking water of one-seventh of the United States, including people who live in Las Vegas, Arizona, and the Southern California urban areas of Los Angeles and, of course, the city I represent, San Diego. I want to thank my colleagues, the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) and the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Cannon), for their leadership in moving this pile, which is as big as 118 football fields, rather than what was previously suggested, which was capping it in place. We have all fought for 3 years to prevent the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from doing just that, capping the pile, because that would ensure that the poisonous waste would continue to leach into the Colorado River for almost 300 years.”