Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is pushing Congress to pass the Contaminant and Lead Electronic Accounting and Reporting Requirements (CLEARR) for Drinking Water Act, which she says would help small and disadvantaged communities across New York state clean up water contamination in their local water systems.
The CLEARR Drinking Water Act would increase funding for disadvantaged communities to comply with Safe Drinking Water Act requirements, help communities identify at-risk drinking water systems, and modernize the testing of public water systems.
“The CLEARR Drinking Water Act would give communities the resources they need to clean up water pollution.
New Yorkers have a right to know what is in their drinking water and whether it’s safe to drink, and I urge my colleagues to pass this important legislation now.” The CLEARR Drinking Water Act would increase the amount of funding provided by the Assistance for Small and Disadvantaged Communities program from $60 million per year through 2021 to $230 million for 2019 and $300 million each year for 2020 through 2023.
The Assistance for Small and Disadvantaged Communities program helps small and disadvantaged communities comply with Safe Drinking Water Act requirements.
The legislation would also provide funding for in-home water quality tests.
In addition, the CLEARR Drinking Water Act would help modernize the testing of public water systems by requiring the EPA to establish new electronic reporting of water system compliance data, helping to provide communities with a real-time look at water quality.
It would also create new transparency requirements from the EPA about water pollution in order to help New York communities identify and report at-risk drinking water systems.
Specifically, the CLEARR Drinking Water Act would require the EPA to do the following: ¯ Provide advice and technical assistance to state and public water systems to help bring those systems into compliance with drinking water regulations; ¯ Perform research on drinking water contaminants, serious public health crises, and the possible health effects that contaminants have on the health of residents.
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OUR VIEW: Ottawa e-waste drop-off a welcome service.
The city of Ottawa is providing a much-needed area service by sponsoring an e-waste recycle drop-off from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 24.
The collection location will be the former Walmart parking lot at 2901 Columbus St.
Residents from other towns are welcome.
Significantly, the drop-off will accept televisions — some of the very hardest items to get rid of in a responsible manner.
Donating or recycling consumer electronics conserves our natural resources and avoids air and water pollution, as well as greenhouse gas emissions that are caused by manufacturing virgin materials.
Also, for every million cell phones we recycle, 35,000 pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold and 33 pounds of palladium can be recovered.
Also, remove any batteries from your electronics — they need to be recycled separately.
Items that will be accepted: cables and cable boxes, cash registers, mobile electronic devices, computers, laptops, computer peripherals, copiers, cords, monitors, external hard drives, fax machines, scanners, VCRs, DVD players, camera, carpet sweepers, vacuums, curling irons, electric knives, electric tooth brushes, holiday lights and servers as well as — without their glass parts — blenders and coffee makers.
Non-accepted items will not be collected or removed from vehicles during the event.