September 26, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 156 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages H8010-H8013]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             SOUTH FLORIDA CLEAN COASTAL WATERS ACT OF 2019

  Ms. JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and 
pass the bill (H.R. 335) to require the Inter-Agency Task Force on 
Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia to develop a plan for reducing, 
mitigating, and controlling harmful algal blooms and hypoxia in South 
Florida, and for other purposes, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                                H.R. 335

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``South Florida Clean Coastal 
     Waters Act of 2019''.

     SEC. 2. SOUTH FLORIDA HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS AND HYPOXIA 
                   ASSESSMENT AND ACTION PLAN.

       (a) In General.--The Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia 
     Research and Control Act of

[[Page H8011]]

     1998 (Public Law 105-383; 33 U.S.C. 4001 et seq.) is 
     amended--
       (1) by redesignating sections 605 through 609 as sections 
     606 through 610, respectively; and
       (2) by inserting after section 604 the following:

     ``SEC. 605. SOUTH FLORIDA HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS AND HYPOXIA.

       ``(a) South Florida.--In this section, the term `South 
     Florida' means--
       ``(1) all lands and waters within the administrative 
     boundaries of the South Florida Water Management District;
       ``(2) regional coastal waters, including Biscayne Bay, the 
     Caloosahatchee Estuary, Florida Bay, and Indian River Lagoon; 
     and
       ``(3) the Florida Reef Tract.
       ``(b) Integrated Assessment.--Not later than 540 days after 
     the date of enactment of the South Florida Clean Coastal 
     Waters Act of 2019, the Task Force, in accordance with the 
     authority under section 603, shall complete and submit to 
     Congress and the President an interim integrated assessment. 
     Not later than 3 years after such date of enactment, the Task 
     Force shall finalize, and submit to Congress and the 
     President, such assessment. Such assessment shall examine the 
     causes, consequences, and potential approaches to reduce 
     harmful algal blooms and hypoxia in South Florida, and the 
     status of, and gaps within, current harmful algal bloom and 
     hypoxia research, monitoring, management, prevention, 
     response, and control activities that directly affect the 
     region by--
       ``(1) Federal agencies;
       ``(2) State agencies;
       ``(3) regional research consortia;
       ``(4) academia;
       ``(5) private industry;
       ``(6) nongovernmental organizations; and
       ``(7) Indian tribes (as defined in section 4 of the Indian 
     Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 
     5304)).
       ``(c) Action Plan.--
       ``(1) In general.--Not later than 3 years and 6 months 
     after the date of the enactment of the South Florida Clean 
     Coastal Waters Act of 2019, the Task Force shall develop and 
     submit to Congress a plan, based on the integrated assessment 
     under subsection (b), for reducing, mitigating, and 
     controlling harmful algal blooms and hypoxia in South 
     Florida.
       ``(2) Contents.--The plan submitted under paragraph (1) 
     shall--
       ``(A) address the monitoring needs identified in the 
     integrated assessment under subsection (b);
       ``(B) develop a timeline and budgetary requirements for 
     deployment of future assets;
       ``(C) identify requirements for the development and 
     verification of South Florida harmful algal bloom and hypoxia 
     models, including--
       ``(i) all assumptions built into the models; and
       ``(ii) data quality methods used to ensure the best 
     available data are utilized; and
       ``(D) propose a plan to implement a remote monitoring 
     network and early warning system for alerting local 
     communities in the region to harmful algal bloom risks that 
     may impact human health.
       ``(3) Requirements.--In developing the action plan, the 
     Task Force shall--
       ``(A) consult with the State of Florida, and affected local 
     and tribal governments;
       ``(B) consult with representatives from regional academic, 
     agricultural, industry, and other stakeholder groups;
       ``(C) ensure that the plan complements and does not 
     duplicate activities conducted by other Federal or State 
     agencies, including the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration 
     Task Force;
       ``(D) identify critical research for reducing, mitigating, 
     and controlling harmful algal bloom events and their effects;
       ``(E) evaluate cost-effective, incentive-based partnership 
     approaches;
       ``(F) ensure that the plan is technically sound and cost-
     effective;
       ``(G) utilize existing research, assessments, reports, and 
     program activities;
       ``(H) publish a summary of the proposed plan in the Federal 
     Register at least 180 days prior to submitting the completed 
     plan to Congress; and
       ``(I) after submitting the completed plan to Congress, 
     provide biennial progress reports on the activities toward 
     achieving the objectives of the plan.''.
       (b) Clerical Amendment and Correction.--The table of 
     contents in section 2 of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 
     1998 (Public Law 105-383) is amended by striking the items 
     relating to title VI and inserting the following new items:

              ``TITLE VI--HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS AND HYPOXIA

``Sec. 601. Short title.
``Sec. 602. Findings.
``Sec. 603. Assessments.
``Sec. 603A. National Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Program.
``Sec. 603B. Comprehensive research plan and action strategy.
``Sec. 604. Northern Gulf of Mexico hypoxia.
``Sec. 605. South Florida harmful algal blooms and hypoxia.
``Sec. 606. Great Lakes hypoxia and harmful algal blooms.
``Sec. 607. Protection of States' Rights.
``Sec. 608. Effect on other Federal authority.
``Sec. 609. Definitions.
``Sec. 610. Authorization of appropriations.''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Johnson) and the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Lucas) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Texas.


                             General Leave

  Ms. JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their 
remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 335, the bill under 
consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Texas?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 335, the South Florida 
Clean Coastal Waters Act of 2019.
  I want to thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mast) for introducing 
this bill and for his commitment to this important issue.
  South Florida has been suffering from economically and ecologically 
costly blooms of harmful algae in both its marine and freshwater 
systems for years, and it continues to get worse. Last year, south 
Florida was plagued with one of the most severe harmful algal bloom, or 
HABs, events on record.
  Simultaneous toxic red tide and massive freshwater blue-green algae 
blooms choked waterways and coastlines. This caused a mass mortality of 
wildlife, including, dolphins, manatees, and sea turtles. Hundreds of 
tons of dead fish washed up on the shores.
  Beyond the millions of dollars of lost revenue for businesses, red 
tide and other HABs also pose health risks to humans from direct 
exposure and from eating infected seafood.
  Low oxygen, known as hypoxia, can result when the algae die, sink to 
the bottom of the water bodies, and decay. It is a problem in the Gulf 
of Mexico ``dead zone'' and is a growing problem along coastlines where 
HABs persist.
  The South Florida Clean Coastal Waters Act authorizes a scientific 
assessment and action plan to help address the problem of HABs and 
hypoxia in south Florida.
  The assessment and action plan will be conducted by the interagency 
Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Task Force, led by 
NOAA and the EPA. This task force researches, monitors, addresses, and 
mitigates HABs and hypoxia.
  The assessment and action plan will help identify research gaps and 
detailed methods for mitigating and controlling HABs and hypoxia in 
south Florida. These documents will help serve as a blueprint for 
Federal, State, and local decisionmakers and other stakeholders to 
coordinate actions to reduce the HABs and hypoxia in the region.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill takes an important step in helping address the 
HABs and hypoxia issue in south Florida. I strongly support this good, 
bipartisan bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. LUCAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of Representative Mast's bill, H.R. 
335, the South Florida Clean Coastal Waters Act of 2019.
  This bill tasks the interagency task force on harmful algal blooms 
and hypoxia to provide an integrated assessment on the causes and 
consequences of HABs, along with potential mitigation options in south 
Florida.
  Additionally, the task force will look at the current status of 
research and identify gaps in research, monitoring, and management 
efforts. This will lead to the development of an action plan for 
reducing, mitigating, and controlling HABs and hypoxia.
  Although this bill is focused on the south Florida region, these 
harmful algal blooms have become an environmental problem in all 50 
States, even in the freshwater of landlocked States like Oklahoma.
  With the passage of this legislation, we will gain more knowledge of 
the dangers associated with HABs as well as potential mitigation 
strategies that could be applied to every State and region.
  I want to thank Representative Mast and Representative Waltz for 
encouraging this interagency collaboration to conduct research that 
will protect our environment and health.

[[Page H8012]]

  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve 
the balance of my time.
  Ms. JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. LUCAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Mast), who has worked so diligently on this bill.
  Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding; I thank 
the gentlewoman for her support; and I thank the committee for their 
work on this piece of legislation.
  Now, HABHRCA is what we are talking about here. That is what a lot of 
people know it as.
  Since 1998 and the creation of HABHRCA, the Harmful Algal Bloom and 
Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act, this interagency task 
force has done incredible work in different areas across the country, 
and they have done incredible work by working collaboratively across a 
number of different agencies.
  Whether you are talking about the Department of Commerce, Interior, 
HHS, CDC, EPA, and looping in there the Corps of Engineers, the work 
has been outstanding, and it is what is needed: collaborative efforts 
to go out there and research and find real results, mitigate the 
occurrences of these harmful algal blooms and hypoxia, and do this in 
waterways across our Nation.
  Now, H.R. 335, the South Florida Clean Coastal Waters Act of 2019, 
focuses that interagency capability on the Nation's most devastating 
example of harmful algal blooms and hypoxia to date: those that have 
occurred in the south Florida area.
  It truly is an environmental emergency that, unfortunately, many have 
witnessed on the news and seen in other places, and it has been a 
result of what has happened for almost a century: The U.S. Government 
has embarked on a piecemeal compilation of infrastructure projects 
across Florida that really contorted and misshaped the natural 
waterways of Florida.

  Now, decades ago, it was realized that this patchwork of 
uncoordinated and often very conflicting flows of water design resulted 
in toxic concentrations of nutrients in one area or the elimination of 
natural filtration systems that used to purify the waters of Florida. 
So south Florida, today, is now riddled with environmental catastrophes 
from north to south, like harmful algal blooms, red tide, and hypoxia, 
these toxic overgrowths from these ecological disasters.
  We have seen far too many of the devastating effects: massive fish 
kills around the Florida peninsula, carcasses of whale sharks, 
dolphins, manatee, millions of pounds of sea life washing up on our 
shores, results of deaths of many other animals, and, unfortunately, 
unknown health effects to humans that come in contact with this.
  Now, a couple important factors that have played into this:
  In July, the Corps of Engineers testified that, for decades, it had 
knowingly discharged enormous quantities of toxic, harmful algal bloom-
laden water from the 730-square-mile lake in the middle of south 
Florida, Lake Okeechobee, and one of those toxins that makes up harmful 
algal blooms that is so dangerous: cyanobacteria.
  After many requests, the EPA, this year, made a report that said 
harmful algal blooms that had cyanobacteria of over 8 parts per 
billion, humans should not come in contact with.
  To put that into perspective, we were having discharges of these 
kinds of algal blooms to the tune of 495 parts per billion last summer, 
so very, very serious health risks going on there.

                              {time}  1330

  They crippled the economy. They crippled small businesses. Tourism, 
fisheries, those things get destroyed. It devastates, obviously, the 
environment. It creates dying ecosystems.
  It is in that that I thank the committee for their support on this 
because it is very serious to our community.
  Mr. LUCAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Waltz), a member of the Science, Space, and Technology 
Committee who also is very focused on these issues.
  Mr. WALTZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank my delegation colleague, Congressman 
Mast, for drafting this important bill, the South Florida Clean Coastal 
Waters Act of 2019, to address the HABs problem, the harmful algal 
blooms, and improve water quality in Florida.
  I also thank Senator Rubio for introducing the Senate companion, and 
I give credit to my predecessor in Congress, now-Governor DeSantis, for 
prioritizing clean water at the State level.
  Red tides and green algae have plagued Florida in recent years. As we 
have discussed here today, it impacts Lake Okeechobee, the Everglades, 
Indian River Lagoon in my district, and both of Florida's coasts.
  Last Congress, the Interagency Task Force on HABs was reauthorized, 
which was a very important step. This bill ensures that the task force 
will produce an integrated assessment on the causes, consequences, and 
approaches to reduce HABs; identify the current gaps in research; and, 
very importantly, produce an action plan to deal with it.
  The focus of the task force is the Everglades, and the health of the 
Everglades impacts water quality across the State.
  The scope of the introduced version for H.R. 335 attempted to take 
this into account by including ``contiguous coastal near-shore water'' 
in the definition of eligible waterways. However, ``contiguous'' could 
be interpreted by the task force--this was my concern--in any number of 
ways, potentially excluding the northern reaches of the Indian River 
Lagoon.
  The entire Indian River Lagoon is part of the National Estuary 
Program, and the southern section is an Army Corps of Engineers 
authorized reservoir included in the Comprehensive Everglades 
Restoration Plan.
  According to the Army Corps, Indian River Lagoon is ``home to more 
than 3,000 species of plants and animals'' and ``considered the most 
biologically diverse estuarine system in the continental United 
States.''
  This dynamic ecosystem is sensitive. It is important to the 
environment for those reasons, but critically, it is also important to 
our economy. A 2016 economic valuation study found that the output of 
the lagoon is about $7.6 billion annually.
  For these reasons, it is the right thing to do to ensure the 
Interagency HABs Task Force includes the entire lagoon.
  In coordination with Congressman Mast, I offered a management 
amendment in the Science, Space, and Technology Committee markup that 
lists the entire Indian River Lagoon in the definition of waterways to 
be included in this bill.
  We are not just seeing HABs in southern Florida. It is now spreading 
to other parts of my district and all parts of Florida. We have already 
seen blue-green algae in the St. Johns River and even spreading into 
our springs. Protecting the springs in central Florida is an ongoing 
effort.
  It is for this reason that the task force's integrated assessment is 
so important. It will improve water quality management and prevent 
harmful algal blooms across the entire lagoon.
  Moving forward, the Congress should examine the Clean Water State 
Revolving Fund allotment formula, which has not been updated since 
1987.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Mr. LUCAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.
  Mr. WALTZ. Importantly, in 2018, Florida received the third lowest 
allotment per capita, according to the EPA, yet it has the third most 
significant infrastructure needs in the country. This is unacceptable, 
particularly for a program so important in a State where water is so 
critical to our way of life.
  I thank Congressman Lucas. I again thank Congressman Mast for his 
work on HABs and this important legislation before us today.
  Mr. LUCAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 335 provides critical research on the harmful algal 
blooms and hypoxia in southern Florida and will develop an action plan 
to mitigate and control this environmental threat.
  I thank Representative Mast, and my Science, Space, and Technology 
Committee colleague, Representative Waltz, for their leadership on this 
bill. I strongly encourage all of my colleagues to support this 
bipartisan legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

[[Page H8013]]

  

  Ms. JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my 
time.
  I simply urge the passage of H.R. 335, and I thank all the staff, as 
well, for the bipartisan support of this bill.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Johnson) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, H.R. 335, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________