Remarks by Rep. Nancy Pelosi
on San Francisco's Celebration
of the 25th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act
Welcome to San Francisco's 25th Birthday Celebration of the Clean Water Act!
Thank you, Mayor Brown, for your leadership and for making this great event possible today.
Felicia Marcus, Regional Administrator for the EPA, deserves our gratitude for her role in bringing EPA's resources to bear on our community and for her strong leadership to protect the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary. Catherine Roberts, on your staff, has been particularly helpful to the Bay Area Congressional Delegation.
To the San Francisco Department of Public Works -- for its legion of stalwarts who were responsible for putting San Francisco on the map of urban leaders on behalf of the Clean Water Act -- thank you for your dedication to the Clean Water Act. My office has been fortunate to work closely with Michelle Pla at the Department to meet the funding requirements for this project.
And to the citizens of our community, thank you for your support and your activism to uphold the strongest interpretation of the Clean Water Act.
Our City has responded wholeheartedly to the call of the Clean Water Act, established 25 years ago. The Act, in 1972, set the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants to waters of the United States. It gave EPA the authority to set water quality standards in order to restrict pollutants and to provide for the public health.
Over this period of time, EPA has invested $2.5 billion a year in grants and loans for sewage treatment plants across the country. San Francisco has been a leading recipient of EPA's generosity and we have used these funds wisely in the development of our wastewater treatment facilities.
Today, we can see the results of San Francisco's efforts on behalf of ensuring a clean and safe response to sewage treatment -- a response that protects the public health, San Francisco Bay and the nearby ocean. The City's 20-year effort and $1.5 billion investment have paid off.
We have not only a completed facility, but a facility that far surpasses the progress being made in other urban areas. San Francisco is one of the first cities in the country with combined sewers to complete its program.
It has been recognized by numerous awards:
Our community can be very proud of these accomplishments. They have brought us a cleaner, healthier Bay and Ocean.
What was the quality of our nation's water 25 years ago, before the Clean Water Act?
The horror stories abound --
Kepone Discharges into the James River, Virginia:
"Dead Sea" in New York Harbor:
11 Companies Charged in Solid Waste Dumping, Chicago:
Mercury Pollution in 33 states:
Many of our nation's rivers and waters were so contaminated they were closed to swimming. Signs were posted along the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. instructing the public not to inhale near the water. Rivers were chemical soups that actually caught fire. The nation's fisheries were in serious trouble.
In San Francisco, our antiquated discharge systems allowed raw sewage to be released into surrounding waters. Very few restrictions existed on the amount and type of wastes that could be dumped into sewers and these wastes, without proper treatment, flowed through the City's existing plants into the Bay and ocean. Health warnings were posted along the City's beaches.
We have crossed the bridge over troubled water, but we have not crossed the finish line. There is still much to be done to protect water quality and to ensure human health in our nation.
You may have heard about recent reports of fish kills near the Chesapeake Bay -- by a microbe called pfiesteria -- which many scientists believe is directly related to uncontrolled animal wastes from chicken farms. Thousands of fish have been killed and there have been numerous reports of related human illness.
There is still a gaping hole in the Clean Water Act -- the threat to our nation's streams and lakes from agricultural runoff. Nonpoint source pollution remains one of the biggest threats to our nation's waters.
Against the backdrop of the Cuyahoga River on fire and an inflamed public, the Clean Water Act was born. The past 25 years under the Clean Water Act have brought us many successes. Our City and the effort that has been made to control combined sewer overflows into surrounding waters is one of the great urban successes under the Act. San Francisco can be very proud of the community energy that motivated this success and the efforts of our civic leaders to implement better controls on sewage discharges.
The Clean Water Act created an action plan that our City responded to in an exemplary way. EPA's financial commitment and the desire of our community to minimize adverse impacts on San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean brought us to this celebration today.
Embarking on a project of this scale -- to collect, store and treat all wet weather flows, sewage and storm water -- required major construction throughout the City. Transport lines now encircle the City and represent a stunning construction achievement where tunneling and building in a fully developed urban area is not a simple endeavor.
The people of San Francisco patiently endured the upheaval. Their patience was due to their deep environmental commitment. Underlying the plan, the project and the actual construction was a very serious commitment by the people of San Francisco to support an effort that would result in greater protection for our Bay and ocean and would minimize the threats to public health.
Because of this commitment and the support of the Environmental Protection Agency, we can appreciate and participate in this success today. It is a success that affects the lives of everyone in our community.
We are familiar with the saying, "Water, water everywhere -- but not a drop to drink." In the Bay Area, we are fortunate to be surrounded by water and to supply drinking water for 20 million people -- 2/3 of California's population. The Bay-Delta watershed encompasses 60,000 square miles -- 40% of the total area of California-- and covers 12 counties with 9.9 million people. We depend on this resource for job creation, for fishing, boating, recreation and tourism. Our communities and our lives are enriched by a healthy Bay-Delta Estuary.
San Francisco truly has made a brilliant contribution to meeting the goals of the Clean Water Act. The cooperative effort between the City, the State, the Federal government and the public provides us with a national model for success.
Water is essential to our lives and our livelihoods. Every individual who has worked toward safeguarding this indispensable resource deserves our appreciation. Thank all of you for your roles in giving us this special event to celebrate today.
