On the recordMay 17, 2016
We hear that pesticide application is already regulated under FIFRA and that the Clean Water Act review is not needed. I understand the concerns about duplication of effort and the need to minimize the impacts that regulations have on small business or business at large. However, I am still very concerned that these pesticides are having a very significant impact on water quality and that we are creating this exemption from water quality protection requirements without considering the impacts to the waters that are already impaired with pesticides, as they are in California. This, in turn, costs our ratepayers, our water users, hundreds of millions of dollars to filter these pollutants out of the water before it is potable. This is something I deal with on an ongoing basis, as the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment. We currently have aquifers that are contaminated by the continued use of pesticides and fertilizers. Millions of dollars have been spent on the 15-year-long cleanup effort of a Superfund site in my area that has pesticides as one of its contaminants. We cannot and should not take away one of the only tools available to monitor for adverse impacts of pesticides in our rivers, streams, and reservoirs. Over the past 5 years, this tool has been reasonable. I oppose this bill.
