Mike Levin: “The Great Waters program is important to my state, the Great Lakes, the Chesapeake Bay, and Lake Champlain area and all…”

“The Great Waters program is important to my state, the Great Lakes, the Chesapeake Bay, and Lake Champlain area and all states with coastal waters. The program is intended to monitor atmospheric deposition of toxic air pollutants, provide information on these pollutants sources and loadings in our surface waters, and recommend to Congress any necessary changes in the Clean Air Act to prevent serious adverse effects to public health and serious or widespread environmental effects. These are important multi-media tasks that should receive Congress's full support. This program will help us identify and reduce toxic air pollution in an efficient way. The FY99 budget request for the Great Waters program, also known as section 112(m) of the Clean Air Act, is $1.484 million. In FY 98, the program received $2.612 million in appropriations. The House Appropriations Committee has included language in its report urging that the EPA '---provide at least $3 million to carry out---the Great Waters program.' I would hope that, at a minimum, the Senate would support this amount for this important program.”