Max Baucus: “I thank the Senator from New Mexico. Madam President, this legislation is another step in the evolution of safe drinking…”

“I thank the Senator from New Mexico. Madam President, this legislation is another step in the evolution of safe drinking water regulation. Every bill that comes before the Congress is essentially another step in an evolving process one way or another. I might say that the first Drinking Water Act was enacted by the Congress 20 years ago. This is the 20th anniversary. It was passed basically because the States up to that point had authority for protecting their water sources and had various different approaches. Some States were quite protective and did a good job in assuring safe water for their people in their States. Others did not do a very good job. There are a lot of instances of illnesses, death and disease as a result of unsafe drinking water. The Congress, in 1974, passed a safe drinking water measure. It had a different name, but it essentially was the first Safe Drinking Water Act. Not much happened for the next 12 years, and the Environmental Protection Agency basically charged with developing regulations and standards had a halting--if that--record in attempting to deal with the problem. So in 1986, the U.S. Congress put more teeth in the Safe Drinking Water Act and basically said that the standards had to be written for 86 contaminants. It said that every 3 years, EPA had to write standards for 25 new contaminants, regardless of whether the contaminants were needed.…”