Kaptur Reintroduces Algal Toxin Reporting Bill
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09) today reintroduced legislation directing the federal EPA to publish a health advisory on microcystin, a toxic byproduct of harmful algal blooms. The bill would provide threatened municipalities guidance on safe consumption limits, testing protocols, and treatment methods. The bill had to be reintroduced this Congress after her similar bill in the 113th Congress did not get a vote in the House.
“We cannot let our communities go blindly into another season of toxic algal blooms without some further guidance from the U.S. EPA,” said Kaptur. “Five months since our water was shut off on the shores of Lake Erie, our officials are still looking for answers and have no better standards for measurement than they did last August,” Kaptur added.
Kaptur’s bill, H.R. 243, would direct the US EPA within 90 days to publish, as an interim measure, an advisory that would help inform and educate local and state officials while EPA continues to work on a federal standard for microsystin in drinking water. Despite requests that state and federal regulators set microcystin limits in drinking water, local water plant operators rely on World Health Organization guidance instead of US EPA science. The EPA has been developing a federal limit for years, but has yet to issue one.
Kaptur introduced the measure the same week Representatives returned to Washington for a new Congress. “We cannot waste any time with the next algae season rapidly approaching,” said Kaptur. A similar bill was derailed by an unnamed Congressman last December, despite bipartisan support and after unanimous passage through the Senate.
Congresswoman Kaptur said she hopes reintroducing the bill will prod US EPA to act on its own and issue long-awaited standards on drinking water for areas affected by toxic algae blooms. “I hope our bill expedites the work on drinking water standards and offers some measure of assurance to communities affected by microsystin that the best science that is available is being brought to bear,” she said.
Kaptur was joined in introducing the bipartisan bill by Representatives Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), John Conyers (D-Michigan), Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), Brian Higgins (D-New York), David Joyce (R-Ohio), Sander Levin (D- Michigan), Candice Miller (R- Michigan), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-Washington, DC), Mike Quigley (D-Illinois), Tim Ryan (D- Ohio), and Louise Slaughter (D-New York).
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