HR1721DEC9

TheWeekInCongress.com

Week Ending December 9, 2005

H.R.1721 To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to reauthorize programs to improve the quality of coastal recreation waters, and for other purposes.

BRIEF

The accompanying report explained the background and purpose of the bill: “Beaches are an important part of American life. Each year over 180 million people visit our nation's coastal waters for recreational purposes. This activity supports over 28 million jobs and leads to investments of over $50 billion in goods and services. It is important to give the public confidence in the quality of our nation's coastal waters. This confidence is important not only to each person who swims, but also to the tourism and recreation industries that rely on safe and swimmable (sic) coastal waters.

“In October 2000, Congress passed the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-284; commonly called the BEACH Act) to improve the public's confidence in the quality of our nation's coastal waters and protect public health and safety. The BEACH Act amended the Clean Water Act to require states to update their water quality standards to incorporate criteria for protecting human health from pathogens in coastal recreation waters, and to require EPA to issue new or revised water quality criteria for pathogens and pathogen indicators. The BEACH Act also added section 406 to the Clean Water Act, which authorized a grant program to provide funding for states and local governments to develop and implement programs for beach water quality monitoring and notification to the public of exceedances (sic) of water quality standards for pathogens in coastal recreation waters.

“Under the BEACH Act, EPA has been developing new water quality criteria to protect human health from pathogens, and states are updating their water quality standards for recreational coastal waters to incorporate these more protective criteria. EPA also has been making grants to states to help them implement programs to monitor beach water quality and notify the public if water quality standards for pathogens are not being met.

The BEACH Act authorized, for each of fiscal years 2001 through 2005, such sums as are necessary to carry out the Act's program provisions and $30 million for EPA to make program development and implementation grants under Clean Water Act section 406.”

Sponsor: Representative Timothy H. Bishop (D-NY-1^st)

Vote: Passed House by voice vote December 6, 2005.

Cost to the taxpayers: “CBO estimates that implementing this legislation would cost $10 million in 2006 and $121 million over the 2006-2010 period, with additional spending occurring in later years.”