Bob Kerrey: “copper is a substance that at certain levels will cause gastrointestinal problems. That is the issue here. Unlike lead…”

“copper is a substance that at certain levels will cause gastrointestinal problems. That is the issue here. Unlike lead, it is a different sort of public health problem. Again, it is an essential element. Understand, that the estimated content in mother's milk in some cases will exceed 1.35--will exceed 1.3 milligrams per liter. You can imagine what the EPA would say if we gave them the authority to regulate mother's milk. Perhaps they would require some sort of contraption to be applied in order to make certain that babies are not getting a dose in excess of 1.3 milligrams, even though no scientific study, Mr. President, has concluded that there is a problem. The EPA will say, remarkably, ``Well, the World Health Organization has a standard of 2.0 milligrams per liter, and 1.3 milligrams per liter is close.'' Two is almost twice of 1.3. It may look close if you are calculating the size of the deficit, but it is not very close as a multiple of 1.3. They set a level, Mr. President, an arbitrary level, that cannot be supported by science. All we are asking for is delay. I would be willing to accept some change in the law, some report language that would enable Nebraska to say, ``We will, with our public health effort, make certain that no one in Nebraska is going to get sick. But, for gosh sakes, don't make these Nebraska communities invest millions of dollars in water treatment efforts.'' Some of these communities have very, very small budgets.…”