Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Chairman, I respect my good friend and colleague, the ranking member, and I appreciate what he mentioned in terms of the prior legislation, but I would say that was just research.
What we're attempting here is to be able to have demonstration projects. The EPA has done a great deal of work in this area in helping communities across the country undertake recycling and reuse projects. What we're doing here is having a coordinated program in the agency rather than just a few projects here or there that would allow the EPA to do the monitoring, evaluation and documentation necessary to promote the new technologies nationwide. Reclaimed or recycled water is highly engineered for safety. Indeed, the quality can be more predictable than some existing surface and groundwater sources. Right now, only about 5 to 6 percent of municipal wastewater effluent in the United States is reclaimed and beneficially used for any purpose.
In addition to enhancing water supplies, these technologies can help the environment by reducing the diversion of water from sensitive ecosystems, reducing nutrient and pathogen loads from wastewater discharges to waterways and reducing pollution from storm water runoff.
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So beyond research, we really need a coordinated program of demonstration.
I urge my colleagues to support this simple amendment to create a program to pursue technology demonstration projects at the building, site, neighborhood, and watershed scales.
