House OKs $7.6-Billion Tap Water Cleanup Fund

Endorsing what could be the only major environmental bill to clear Congress this year, the House passed legislation Tuesday that would create a $7.6-billion fund to improve the quality of drinking water.

Under the bill, public water systems would be able to tap into the state-administered loan fund to upgrade their equipment to meet federal drinking standards.

But the bill would repeal a law requiring the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate 25 additional water contaminants. Instead, the new bill would require the EPA simply to publish a list every five years of unregulated contaminants that have been found in the nation’s drinking-water supply.

The bill also would require water system officials to inform communities of the contaminant levels in their drinking water and the health effects of contaminants that exceed EPA standards.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) hailed the near-unanimous passage of the Safe Drinking Water Act as an example of bipartisan cooperation on environmental legislation.

Earlier this year the Senate unanimously passed a similar measure.

But the House bill, passed on a voice vote, was not without its critics. Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) led a small group of Democrats who opposed public works projects that Republicans added to the bill.

Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) repeatedly denied Tuesday that the bill funds pet projects. But on Monday the Republicans earmarked $375 million of the loan fund money for 14 special projects, 10 of them based in Republican districts.

The bill also directs the EPA to use $10 million of the fund to conduct annual studies on the health effects of cryptosporidium, a microorganism sometimes found in drinking water, and the possibility that disinfectant byproducts in water, such as chlorine, can cause cancer.