Sherwood Boehlert: “traditionally our Clean Water Act programs have appropriately focused on how to keep water from getting polluted, and…”

“traditionally our Clean Water Act programs have appropriately focused on how to keep water from getting polluted, and that makes a lot of sense. That is a matter of the highest priority. It is still a national objective to have all of our Nation's waters fishable and swimmable. However, less attention has been paid to opportunities to reclaim or reuse water. However, to meet critical water supply needs in some parts of the country, existing sources of water will not be sufficient. That is a sad commentary, but it is true. We are going to have to reclaim and reuse water. Water shortages are nothing new in the arid West. The Bureau of Reclamation has a water reclamation and reuse program for the 17 Western States and 4 U.S. territories pursuant to the Reclamation Projects Authorization and Adjustment Act of 1992, and that is very appropriate. Some areas of the eastern half of the United States are now beginning to have water shortages as well. But due to the limited assistance available to water reclamation or reuse projects in the East, we are failing to preserve existing supplies of fresh water through water conservation and reuse. To address this issue, our distinguished colleagues, the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Thurman) and the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Fowler), introduced H.R. 1106 to authorize EPA grants for alternative water source projects to meet critical water supply needs.”