Advocacy Project: Healthy People/THOMAS

The Healthy People 2010 goal I chose to follow was...

8-5 Safe Drinking Water in Community Water Systems

The whole point of this goal was to take the 84 percent of people in 1995 that currently received drinking water that meets the regulations of the Safe Drinking Water Act and raise that to 95 percent. From the Progress Quotient Chart, I was able to see that 55% of the target was already at the level of drinking water suggested by the year 2003, bringing the percentage of people that had it up to 90%. Other steps were also being taken over this time period around the beaches. This was to monitor the beaches and regulate what was going into them and being taken out. The government also submits questionnaires to those who own land where a beach is on and asks them how they maintain it and if they ever shut it down for a period of time during the year.

Since these programs that monitor beach sites are inconsistent with each area, the EPA has made grants available to those who meet the performance criterion. The EPA hopes that these grants will eliminate all the inconsistency that goes along with beach up-keep.

H.R.54 : Great Lakes Water Protection Act

Title: To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to establish a deadline for restricting sewage dumping into the Great Lakes and to fund programs and activities for improving wastewater discharges into the Great Lakes.

Sponsor: Rep Kirk, Mark Steven [IL-10] (introduced 1/6/2009) Cosponsor: Rep Lipinski, Daniel [IL-3] - 1/6/2009

Latest Major Action: 1/6/2009 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Recommendation: Vote Yes for H.R. 54 Great Lakes Water Protection Act

My political representative:  Representative Tim Walz, (1st - DFL)