Norman Mineta: “Americans know that there is very little as important in their daily lives as clean water. Their health depends on it…”

“Americans know that there is very little as important in their daily lives as clean water. Their health depends on it, the quality of life in their community depends on it, and the prospects for economic growth depend on it. That is why Americans hold in such high regard the efforts we have made over the past two decades to clean up our Nation's rivers, lakes, and coastal areas. Americans know they cannot clean up the water in their own community by themselves, because the pollution in their water comes from others upstream, maybe even in another State. It may come from a factory, it may come from a sewage treatment works, it may come from a feed lot-- but what somebody else in another jurisdiction puts in the river becomes one of the most important issues in their lives. They drink it, their kids swim in it, they rely on a supply of clean water to attract new jobs to their area. That is why we have a Federal Clean Water Act. And that is why we should not weaken the Clean Water Act now on the books. There are many complex provisions in the Clean Water Act. But what matters most to the majority of Americans is that somebody is limiting the amount of pollution being dumped into the river upstream from them by factories and by sewage treatment works. That is what the American people want. That's what they have in the existing Clean Water Act. And that is exactly what this bill would take away from them. This is a bill by and for major polluters.”