Norton Argues Her Clean Water Amendment to Protect the Drinking Water Supply in This Region and the Nation

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton today (D-DC) offered an amendment protect the nation's drinking water at the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee markup of a bill (H.R. 4965) that would limit the authority of the Obama administration to regulate pollution in smaller waterways.

Norton, who is a senior member of the committee and who has long fought for the health of waterways and for improvements in public drinking water, said that the bill would limit Clean Water Act regulations for small waterways, leave agencies with no guidance, and would endanger the drinking water for over 100 million Americans. She rebutted the claim of a lack of transparency in the development of the regulations, citing nearly 230,000 public comments on the regulations, over 90 percent of which favored the guidance.

Although Norton's amendment was defeated on a technicality, she noted in debate on the amendment that even the water that Members of Congress drink here in the District of Columbia would be affected by the bill because the Potomac River, the source of the District's drinking water, is fed by small waterways.

Published: June 8, 2012