Max Baucus: “I, like my good friend and chairman of the committee, Senator Chafee, strongly support the Safe Drinking Water Act…”

“I, like my good friend and chairman of the committee, Senator Chafee, strongly support the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996. We all know that the Safe Drinking Water Act needs to be reformed. We have heard all kinds of stories. They are largely true. We have had problems in many of our cities, our large cities. We heard about Milwaukee, Washington, DC, and the cryptosporidium problems, as well as some problems in small communities. It is basic, it is fundamental: Americans should be able to drink their water and rest assured that the water they drink is safe, that they will not get sick, whether they are in the comfort of their own home or whether they are visiting the Nation's Capital or wherever they might be in our country. The current version of the Safe Drinking Water Act, is helpful in this direction, but, in many respects, it produces more paperwork than it does progress. It is my belief that this conference report helps change that. What does it do? First, it reforms the regulatory process. This is very important. It makes it much more streamlined, and reduces redtape. It cuts monitoring costs. This is extremely important. The monitoring costs for some contaminants are extremely high, and Americans would be amazed at how expensive it is. The bill also creates a new revolving loan fund so communities will have the resources to get the technology they need.”