Maria Cantwell: “I think probably for most people, including my colleagues, what we have done is shown that this is a very complex issue…”

“I think probably for most people, including my colleagues, what we have done is shown that this is a very complex issue, a very complicated issue, and that it needs more discussion than a few hours on the Senate floor, because what is at stake here is the lives of individuals who are living in these communities, whose ground water may be contaminated, whose safe drinking water in the future may be contaminated at levels that are not sustainable in these areas. Let me point out, we have agreements. We have agreements with the Department of Energy on cleanup. They are agreements that basically say: DOE, keep making progress on cleanup and please continue to follow the Federal statute. The issue at hand is that somehow my colleague from South Carolina has been persuaded by the Department of Energy--an argument the State of Washington refused to buy, I might add, an argument the State of Idaho refused to buy--that somehow cleanup means we have to reclassify waste.”