Sean Patrick Maloney: “I support the rule. The new majority has a case of special interest amnesia. The special interests and polluters claim…”

“I support the rule. The new majority has a case of special interest amnesia. The special interests and polluters claim they are overregulated. So the new majority is forgetting the days when our rivers burned, when fish and wildlife floated dead in our lakes and streams, and when our drinking water was in imminent danger of contamination. The Clean Water Act remedied that situation. Now, the new majority wants to gut the Clean Water Act. The New York City water supply needs no additional purification, thanks to safeguards in the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water. Weakened standards on pollution runoff under this bill will severely jeopardize the city's drinking water and our rivers and lakes. So will loosened restrictions on sewage treatment plants that operate in watershed areas. When is the new majority going to realize that some government regulations actually do some good? This time, they are not just throwing the baby out with the bathwater. They are throwing out the drinking water, too. I implore my colleagues to think about what we drink and to reject this Dirty Water Act.”