Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased, along with my colleague, BETSY MARKEY from Colorado, to offer this amendment to create a wastewater and storm water reuse and recycling technology demonstration program within the Environmental Protection Agency.
I would like to begin by expressing my appreciation to Chairman Gordon and to his staff for working with us to refine the amendment. This is important work that's being done. I appreciate the debate and the energy, and we are pleased to offer this small element that, I think, makes a big difference.
Water reuse involves taking wastewater or storm water, giving it the appropriate level of treatment for its intended use and using the resulting reclaimed or recycled water for a new, beneficial purpose. These beneficial purposes can range from agriculture and landscape irrigation, to industrial processes, to toilets, to replenishing groundwater.
It's clear that this is not necessarily a new technology. According to the Water Reuse Association, reclaimed water has been used for crop irrigation for more than 100 years and for landscape irrigation for more than 70 years. The Earth has recycled and reused water for millions of years through the natural water cycle, but the amount of water that we reuse and recycle is just, if I may use the phrase, ``a drop in the bucket'' compared to what we could be doing, which is why I think a new demonstration project is in order.
Across the globe, water consumption has tripled in the last 50 years. According to the EPA, at least 36 States are anticipating local, regional or Statewide water shortages by 2013 even under non-drought conditions. As communities grow and water supplies decrease, they will be forced to seek alternative sources of water. In an era of climate change and water stress, water reuse and recycling has a great deal of potential to help alleviate pressures on water managers and to help communities become less dependent on ground and surface water sources.
A demonstration program will help reduce the costs of these technologies, and it will also help communities overcome the technical and social barriers to water reuse and recycling.
