Clean water is one of our most basic needs and one of our greatest luxuries. During the 107th Congress, the EPW Committee celebrated the 30th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act. Senator Robert Stafford, Republican from Vermont, who was an original author of the Act, testified about the importance of clean water, the progress our nation has made, and the challenges we have still to meet.

The secret to clean water is prevention. Many of the most serious obstacles to clean water-including oil spills, sewage treatment, farm runoff, point source pollution, and storm water runoff, for example-can all be most economically dealt with using preventative measures. My priority as Ranking Member is to keep pollution out of our water in the first place.