Grace Napolitano: “I am so happy that I am hearing the support, the bipartisan support for this measure, and I am also here to join as an…”

“I am so happy that I am hearing the support, the bipartisan support for this measure, and I am also here to join as an original cosponsor of this measure. I would like to also thank my good friend and respected colleague the gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier) for offering this legislation and helping it move quickly through the House. I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Borski) and others from the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure for understanding the importance of this particular area of contamination in California that has affected a lot of us that live and work in those areas. The San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Initiative is of critical importance to the people of my district. Those water aquifers, the underground streams running through the San Gabriel Valley which supply drinking water to 1.4 million people, have been known to be contaminated with volatile organic compounds for over two decades. I have been working on this issue and trying to bring it to some kind of closure since I served on the local city council and managed to get a water coalition and been following its nonprogress. Then in the past 3 years, perchlorate and other dangerous chemicals related to rocket fuels have also been found in that water. The contamination is seeping below the spreading grounds at Whittier Narrows and into my district.”