Political Quotes

“I rise to support an amendment to section 9, the Source Water Quality Protection Program. I am pleased to cosponsor this amendment with Senator Warner, of Virginia. We have worked closely together to develop a program that will help communities and water systems protect their drinking water sources from harmful pollutants. Moreover, we have tried to take a cooperative and voluntary approach to sourcewater protection by offering incentives to States and communities that want to pursue a sourcewater protection program. What we are trying to accomplish by reauthorizing the Safe Drinking Water Act is a more rational approach to ensuring clean, safe drinking water for the country. We need to make sure that the scarce resources that we direct toward this goal are expended in the most effective manner possible. I believe the bill before the Senate does this. It makes the law more workable and more rational. It provides financial assistance and greater flexibility to meet the requirements of the act. And, it provides additional consideration of risk in the regulation of contaminants. We should also work to provide positive incentives, rather than prescriptive mandates, to achieve our goals. That is what the Warner- Conrad amendment is designed to do with respect to sourcewater protection. Our amendment encourages States to assist communities that are seeking to reduce contaminants in their drinking water sources.”