WASHINGTON, DC -- H.R. 961, the Clean Water Act Amendments of 1995, passed the House today by a vote of 240 to 185. Congressman Collin C. Peterson (DFL-7th District) supported the bill.
"This bill gives needed flexibility to the Environmental Protection Agency and state governments while strengthening and enhancing existing Clean Water Act programs," said Peterson.
The $20.3 billion over five years that the bill authorizes includes $15 billion for state revolving loan funds, $1 billion for state non-point source grants, $750 million for state program grants, and $250 million for rural, unsewered areas.
"It provides strengthened, renewed regional programs for national estuaries, clean lakes, the Chesapeake Bay, and the Great Lakes." Peterson said. "It provides stronger enforcement authorities and penalties against polluters at Federal agencies and facilities. And it provides increased emphasis on sound science and research."
"As for changes to the wetlands program, I believe the bill brings sanity to this troubled program by clearly defining regulatory criteria for the first time," Peterson continued. "The bill requires a new definition of what constitutes a 'wetland` -- a definition that actually requires a reasonable relationship to water. In addition, the Section 404 permit program is replaced with a new system of wetlands classification."
The bill leaves decisions to regulate low-value wetlands to the State and local levels. It provides incentives to States to assume management of the program. It requires that landowners be compensated when regulatory actions diminish property values which would be paid from the agencies' own budgets. It sets deadlines for agency decisions on permit applications and it requires dissemination of information to the public. And it makes a single agency accountable for managing the program.
"The next step will be to bring more common sense to the Swampbuster portion of the Farm Bill, and we will be doing that during the upcoming Farm Bill debates.
"The bottom line is I believe H.R. 961 is a good bill. It puts common sense flexibility into the Clean Water Act, and protects the wetlands program. These changes have been needed for a long time."