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STATEMENT OF MARGARET J. STASIKOWSKI, DIRECTOR, HEALTH 

 AND ECOLOGICAL CRITERIA DIVISION, ENVIRONMENTAL PRO- 

 TECTION AGENCY, ACCOMPANIED BY: STEVE SCHAUB, SENIOR 

 MICROBIOLOGIST, OFFICE OF WATER, EPA; VICKIE A. ALLIN, 

 CHIEF, POLICY COORDINATION DIVISION, OFFICE OF COASTAL 

 RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOS- 

 PHERIC ADMINISTRATION, ACCOMPANIED BY: THOMAS O'CON- 

 NOR, CHIEF, COASTAL MONITORING BRANCH, OFFICE OF 

 OCEAN RESOURCES, COORDINATION AND ASSESSMENT; GARRY 

 MAURO, COMMISSIONER, TEXAS GENERAL LAND OFFICE; 

 MARLIN DOOLEY, DIRECTOR, ENFORCEMENT COORDINATION, 

 NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

 AND ENERGY; SARAH CHASIS, SENIOR ATTORNEY, NATURAL 

 RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL; AND BETSY SCHRADER, COOR- 

 DINATOR, MARINE DEBRIS PROGRAM, CENTER FOR MARINE 

 CONSERVATION 



STATEMENT OF MARGARET J. STASIKOWSKI, DIRECTOR, HEALTH 

 AND ECOLOGICAL CRITERIA DIVISION, EPA, ACCOMPANIED BY 

 STEVE SCHAUB, SENIOR MICROBIOLOGIST, OFFICE OF WATER, 

 EPA 



Ms. STASIKOWSKI. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and Members of 

 the Subcommittee. My name is Margaret Stasikowski. I am the Di- 

 rector of the Health and Ecological Criteria Division in the EPA 

 Office of Water. I am accompanied today by Dr. Steve Schaub, 

 Senior Microbiologist in our Office of Water. 



Everyone should be able to enjoy a day at the beach without wor- 

 rying about health risks of infectious diseases. The agency under- 

 stands the importance of our coastal waters as a resource for recre- 

 ation by visitors from around the world. 



Tourism at our coastal areas is important commercially as Amer- 

 ican and international visitors alike generate billions of dollars an- 

 nually. As the Federal agency with primary responsibility for im- 

 plementing the Clean Water Act, EPA is fully committed to achiev- 

 ing the goal of maintaining fishable and swimmable waters nation- 

 wide. We support the concept of protective bathing beach water 

 quality criteria and consider it important to provide consistent pro- 

 tection. 



Before commenting on the specific provisions of the bill, I would 

 like to discuss our current understanding of the problem and tell 

 you about the activities that the agency has done in this area. 



As you know, some of the major sources of microbiological pollu- 

 tion that contaminate coastal waters and consequently lead to 

 beach closures or advisories include overloaded sewage treatment 

 plants, discharges of untreated sewage from combined sewer over- 

 flows, polluted stormwater runoff from urban and various other 

 nonpoint pollutant sources. We have a number of efforts underway 

 and I will call these "pollution prevention efforts." 



We are not talking here about monitoring when the problem is 

 bad but actually preventing the problem. We have a number of ef- 

 forts in this way. 



We are proposing a national policy for managing the combined 

 sewer overflows. We recognize that this problem requires site-spe- 



