Jim Costa: “It is oftentimes the poorest and some of the most underrepresented communities in the country that have the greatest…”

“It is oftentimes the poorest and some of the most underrepresented communities in the country that have the greatest impacts--for historical reasons, in part--on public health, communities across the country we all represent. I represent a number of those communities in California in the San Joaquin Valley that are experiencing enormous challenges as it relates to their water quality and contamination that has existed because of decades-past experiences in many cases with nitrates, in which at the time it was not well understood, but today it is, that in fact it has tremendous impacts on our drinking water supply as it relates to our aquifers. The amendment that is proposed is intended to address this problem by creating a pilot program for severely disadvantaged communities that would provide funds in this FARRM Bill for the Rural Utility Service that would address this nitrate contamination for rural drinking water communities, those communities that we all represent that have 10,000 population or less. The San Joaquin Valley that Congressman Valadao and I and others represent has almost 4 million people. It's almost 10 percent of California's population. Twenty percent of those folks live below the poverty line. They reflect a broad cross-range of folks--immigrants past, immigrants present--who have come here to live the American Dream and work so hard, so many in our agriculture economy.…”