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Delegate Norton Sponsors Lead-Free Drinking Water Act
Delegate Eleanor Holmes-Norton and Senator James Jeffords (I-Vt) co-introduced the "Lead-Free Drinking Water Act of 2004," which will overhaul the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 to strengthen the federal rules governing lead-testing and standards in U.S. public water systems. The legislation would also require better notification for residents when a water system has high lead levels and creates a fund for total replacement of lead service lines on residential properties. The legislation requires that information should be made public immediately upon detection: the number of homes tested, the lead levels found, the areas of the community where they were located, the disproportionate adverse health effects of lead on infants
The bill requires increased water testing and lead remediation in schools and day-care centers nationwide. It provides a $200 million-a-year fund for lead pipe replacement on residential properties. EPA estimates the country needs $265 billion to maintain and improve its drinking water infrastructure over the next 20 years. The recent lead problem in our nation's capital provides a case study in how the Safe Drinking Water Act needs to be revised.
Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton To Clean Up Anacostia River
Nov 2003 Congresswoman Norton is sponsoring a bill to clean up Anacostia River--the 'other' 
river in our nation's capital. The Anacostia Watershed Initiative Act of 2003 will develop, fund and implement a ten-year action plan to clean the river's watershed. The Anacostia is not fishable or swimmable. Combined sewer overflow (CSO) wastewater and stormwater piping delivers pure waste to the river whenever it rains.
Cosponsors of Norton's bill include Representatives Steny Hoyer, Albert wynn and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Jim Moran of Virginia. Most of the upstream land that contributes pollution is in Maryland. About a sixth is owned by the federal government. Norton's bill would address the district's outdated sewer system and runoff from federal and other properties.
Maryland Vs. Virginia For Potomac River Water
Virginia wants to extend a water intake pipe into the Potomac River despite objections by Maryland, which owns the Potomac. The Fairfax County Virginia Water Authority filed an application with the Maryland Department of the Environment in 1996 to extend a water intake pipe into the river to serve 1.2 million customers. Maryland regulators rejected the application, saying sprawling development in northern Virginia was damaging the river. Virginia sued Maryland, claiming it never should have been required to seek permission. After the special master ruling last December, Maryland appealed the case to the full Supreme Court. Virginia's case was supported last year by a special master appointed by the Supreme Court, who ruled that framers of the agreements between the two states did not intend to hand absolute authority to Maryland. But a Maryland judge later overturned the decision and ordered the state to issue the permit. The disputer will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. A decision in favor of Virginia would free the state of some of Maryland's regulatory control on issues like water rights.
At issue is how far Maryland's regulatory authority extends over the river and whether Virginia even needed permission from its neighbor to build the pipe. Maryland argues both agreements merely allow Virginians to use the river with Maryland's approval. But Virginia says in its brief that the wording clearly gives it the right to use the Potomac without Maryland's permission.AAEA believes that Maryland should relent in this matter and share jurisdiction of half the river with Virginia. We believe that this is a standard practice among most jurisdictions.
Maryland has controlled the Potomac since the early 17th century, including Virginia's rights to fish, draw water from the river and build along its shore. Maryland's ownership extends to the low-water mark on the Virginia shore and Virginia has acquiesced to Maryland's authority for nearly 100 years. Virginia claims the language of a 1785 compact between the states and a later 1877 agreement allow the state to use the river without first gaining approval from Maryland.
A 1632 land grant from King Charles I awarded the Potomac to Maryland. In 1785, a compact negotiated at George Washington's Mount Vernon riverfront estate gave citizens of both states "the privilege of making and carrying out wharves and other improvements." In 1877, another agreement was drawn up that gave Virginia control to the low-water mark on its shore. It also stated that Virginia has "the right to such use of the river beyond the low-water mark as may be necessary for the full enjoyment of her riparian ownership."
Everglades Restoration Trumps Poor Cuban Property Rights
Hundreds of mostly poor Cuban immigrant residents of an 8.5-square-mile area in Florida, which abuts the Everglades National Park in Dade County, Florida, will be displaced by the destruction of 77 of their homes in the Everglades because of a rider to the 2003 $397 billion federal budget bill. Senator Bob Graham (D-FL) made Alternative 6D law by adding a rider to the long-delayed 2003 omnibus-spending bill. The amendment, which was never debated on the Senate floor, instructed the Army Corps of Engineers to move forward with the flooding plan. The passage of the amendment revived the Modified Water Deliveries Project of 1989, after a 14-year long delay of the plan to rehydrate the parched eastern side of the park. The revival of "Mod Waters" would also help the much larger $8.4 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, the most ambitious environmental project in history.
The law authorizing the overall Everglades restoration in 2000 specified that several key elements could not proceed until Mod Waters is complete. The residents of the area, a Cuban American neighborhood of mango groves and horse pastures, were furious even though their congressman, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), attached language requiring the Army Corps of Engineers to offer owners of the 77 affected homes land elsewhere in the neighborhood. The amendment language assures the residents a chance to stay in the 8.5 Square Mile Area, even though it is now slated to become a 4.5 square-mile area. The original Mod Waters plan would have protected the entire neighborhood, but park officials warned that it would also drain 30,000 acres of Everglades’ wetlands, defeating the purpose of the plan. Residents have been holding protest rallies in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood.
As part of the effort to restore the Everglades National Park by flowing fresh water back in, Congress directed the Army Corps of Engineers in 1989 to build flood controls to protect the area. Much of that is unusable property, but local land records showed that around 138 parcels have land-use codes showing legal residences, and 152 are defined as having "major economic activity" on the property — mostly farms, ranches and nurseries. Despite the no-flood instruction, the Corps also developed a new plan, called Alternative 6D, which would protect only about two-thirds of the land — flooding hundreds of people out of their homes. The original plan would have saved all the homes.
The government has to buy all the land it floods.
President Bush, Gov. Jeb Bush, regulators and environmental groups such as the Audubon Society of Florida, National Resources Defense Council and the National Parks Conservation Association supported passage of Alternative 6D. Environmentalists had pushed for a buyout of the entire 8.5 Square Mile Area, but most were happy with the compromise, which is to buy out 44 percent of the land and 12 percent of the homes. Basically, the flow of wetlands trumped the property rights of the poor immigrants. Senator Inhofe, Chairman of the Senate Environment Public Works Committe and property-rights groups opposed Alternative 6D. The amendment reversed a short-lived court victory by the residents of the 8.5 square-mile area. On July 5, a federal district court ruled that Congress never intended to allow the flooding, and ordered the Corps to stop moving forward with Alternative 6D.
