Political Quotes

“Mr. Tonko, you are talking about water. In just looking through the report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers, they have down here ``water systems,'' with drinking water, D; energy, D-plus; sanitation is another D; and wastewater, D. Just across the Nation, in terms of a modern water infrastructure, both drinking water--potable water--as well as the sanitation systems, we rank them a D. In other words, we are polluting. We have contaminated water to drink, and we have contaminated water going out the other end of the sewer plant. Let me just take a second to talk to you about a place where there is not enough water--California. We are in the fourth year of a major drought in California, Mr. Tonko, and you are talking about all of those water problems you have in New York. Perhaps you could put it on one of those tank cars and send it out to California, because we are in desperate need of water in California. Fortunately, last November, the people of California took note of this problem, and they passed a $7.5 billion bond to build the water systems of California. There are many parts to this--rebuilding the community water systems for small communities like you described. We have problems in California because communities are out of water. They don't have any water at all. That is part of it. There is another part in dealing with conservation so that we would conserve our water. There is another piece of it that deals with recycling.…”