gressman Gary Ackerman, Congressman Chris Shays, and the cleanup hitter, Congressman Rick Lazio.

And then we will have the second panel, Congressman Bill Jefferson and Congressman David Vitter, to talk about the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Restoration Act.

Congresswoman Johnson, you are up first.

TESTIMONY OF HON. NANCY JOHNSON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM CONNECTICUT; HON. GARY ACKERMAN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM CONNECTICUT; HON. CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM CONNECTICUT; HON. RICK LAZIO, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM NEW YORK

Mrs. JOHNSON. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate this opportunity to testify before your Subcommittee on what is an extremely important initiative, not only from the point of view of Connecticut and New York, but from the point of view of the entire Nation.

I am going to make my statement, then unfortunately I do have to leave. I am supposed to be in the midst of chairing a hearing as well. So I will leave the questions and answers to my able colleagues from both parties.

Let me just breeze through a few things. I don't want to be too repetitive. But Connecticut has 85 water treatment plants. Every single one of them will have to be altered if we are going to meet our goals in cleaning up Long Island Sound.

Winchester, Connecticut has a small public water system, 2,500 customers. They already have $15 million in debt from the former clean water requirements that we have placed on them. There is truly a limit to how much debt small towns and small cities can bear for whatever purpose. So one of the most important parts of this legislation is the clear legislative authority for States to be able to provide a greater component of grants to recognize tax bases that haven't grown in decades, to recognize distressed community needs and so on.

The Mattabasset district, the sewer authority on which New Britain, Connecticut, depends, would have to raise its rates 100 percent in order to do what has to be done to meet the Long Island Sound requirements. And yet New Britain, which was once a manufacturing hub of the northeast, has been very slow to feel even the effects of this wonderful period of economic growth in our Nation. So with manufacturing drying up in some of these small cities, the resource base dried up. So the resources are really strained to provide the needs of special ed, and they're the very towns withit is bludgeoning, bursting special ed budgets and so on. So I do want you to see the importance of the sort of subsidiary provisions in this bill. Certainly the funding level is very, very important to us. But this right to tailor the program to communities in need is a very important right.

As to the trading program, for example, some of my small towns, no matter how much they put in, they're going to affect the nitrogen level very little by the time it gets down to Long Island Sound. If they put a quarter of that money into enabling Bridgeport to do more aggressive changes to their treatment plant, then much more

nitrogen would be kept out of Long Island Sound for much less cost.

So the trading program is critical not only to assuring that we maximize our effort to keep nitrogen out of the sound, but that we do it in a way that frankly, little water companies can tolerate and the taxpayers who support them can tolerate.

Remember, around Long Island Sound live 10 percent of all Americans. It is the most populated, the most visited, the most traveled area. Our ports, which aren't often thought of by those in the rest of the country, handle incoming freight from national and international sources. It is the source, into Connecticut ports comes most of the home heating oil for New England, 622,000 tons of steel came in in 1997, not just for Connecticut, but all of New England. It is the fourth largest port for the entry of steel products in the United Sates, after New Orleans, Houston and Philadelphia.

Lumber exports are big leaving the port of New London. In 1998, New York and Connecticut caught $23.8 million worth of clams and oysters in the Sound. So if you aren't enjoying the Sound for recreational purposes, you are probably depending on the products that come into its ports, or are consuming the production of its wonderful sea water.

It is a body in which we have a national interest. And it is appropriate that the national government help us form a stronger partnership to clean it up. I would just remind you that Boston Harbor received $840 million to help clean it up. And that the Great Lakes receives $13 million a year, has since 1991 and so on and so forth. I covered the other points earlier in my testimony. So thank you very much. Lastly, let me say, help us.

Thank you for holding this hearing early. We appreciate the Chairman's co-sponsorship of this legislation, a rare effort on his behalf. I don't know if Mr. Borski is a co-sponsor

Mr. BOEHLERT. We are working on him.

Mrs. JOHNSON. We would welcome you aboard as well. Thanks to my colleagues for being here and for taking the responsibility for answering questions throughout the rest of this hearing.

Mr. BOEHLERT. Thank you so much.

Mr. Ackerman. And it is not our intention to ask our colleagues any questions. We will have your testimony and then we will get on to the next panel. Because we know how demanding your respective schedules are.

Mr. Ackerman?

Mr. ACKERMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank my colleagues, especially Congresswoman Johnson, who's just departing, for her leadership, as well as my friend and neighbor on Long Island, Rick Lazio, who worked so closely with me, and Chris Shays from across the Sound who is a leader in so many areas, for whom we have the greatest respect.

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the opportunity to testify today on the restoration of the Long Island Sound, which is a topic that is so important to the millions of people who reside by and who visit the Sound. I would like to commend you, Mr. Chairman, for your diligence and commitment to preserving our environment across the Nation, including and especially Long Island. I encourage you

to continue to be parochial-you are allowed to do that, especially in this area.

And Mr. Borski, thank you very much for your dynamic leadership in the areas of the environment as well.

I am honored to be here, as we all are, with the Governors of both of our States to testify on this very important bill. I am proud to represent an area that has a very long border along the Long Island Sound. The Sound, as you know, is one of our Nation's national treasures, with important environmental, recreational and commercial benefits. Its value as an essential habitat for one of the most diverse ecosystems of the northeast cannot be understated.

Residents and vacationers alike enjoy the Sound for swimming and boating. The approximately $5 billion in revenue generated by commerce relating to the Sound is vital to the region and to individuals especially who base their livelihood on the benefits of the Sound.

Unfortunately, the effects of millions of people on the shore and within the Sound's watershed are evidenced in the deteriorated water quality. Over the last several years, the Long Island Sound has suffered from numerous forms of pollution, including toxic chemicals, floating debris, illegally dumped contaminants, runoffs from fertilizer and road salt as well as pathogen contamination.

However, the Sound's most pressing problem is hypoxia, a deficit of oxygen in the water caused in good measure by nitrogen from sewage treatment plants. In fact, hypoxia is cited as the cause for a drop in the Sound's fish population.

As a result, pollution is threatening Long Island Sound's multibillion dollar a year fishing industry. The most recent and devastating example is the unexplained and widespread lobster die-off. The lobster mortalities were first observed in western Long Island in the fall of 1998. A similar, more severe and more extensive phenomena began in the fall of 1999 and continues today.

The Secretary of Commerce last month determined a commercial fishing failure under the Magnuson-Stephens Act. We must supply adequate resources to address lobster die-off and to examine possible problems in the water that could have caused this crisis.

Preservation of the Long Island Sound is not merely a parochial issue, but it is a national one. By its inclusion as a charter member in the National Estuaries Program, the Sound has been designated as one of only 28 estuaries of national significance. Congress has already recognized the national importance of the Long Island Sound by creating the Long Island Sound Study, which involved Federal, State and local entities along with universities, environmental groups, industry and the general public.

The study culminated in the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan, or CCMP. This was a joint effort of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the States of New York and Connecticut. It has been conducted under the provisions of the Clean Water Act, which is arguably our country's most important law for the protection of our water resources.

This 100 plus page document has detailed the many challenges which face the Long Island Sound. Again, most important among these problems is the condition of hypoxia caused largely by untreated sewage and other types of pollution. The low level of oxygen

that kills fish and other forms of wildlife, disrupts the Sound's entire food chain.

The Study also details the problems of floating garbage, of biological contamination, of industrial waste and in short, all of the things that plague us as a modern society.

We are now ready to move into the implementation phase of the CCMP and the time to act is now. The $80 million which we ask you, Mr. Chairman, and you, Mr. Borski, and members of the Committee to authorize under this legislation is essential for the implementation of remedial efforts to clean up the Long Island Sound. I am very pleased, as all of the original co-sponsors, which are exclusively at this point members from the New York and Connecticut delegations, and it is now going to be open to everybody else

Mr. BOEHLERT. We have already acknowledged that we will allow Mr. Borski into our exclusive club.

[Laughter.]

Mr. ACKERMAN. I am glad we have made that concession, Mr. Chairman. I think that is an important one.

And I am pleased that our Governors have shown up today, check books in hand, with $80 million in matching funds. I am confident that these funds will have a significant impact on the ongoing efforts to improve the quality of the Sound. We must do everything possible to assure the continued funding of these efforts, and this legislation is the appropriate means for achieving the desired end.

Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member, we thank you again for this opportunity and for your attention to this very important matter. Mr. BOEHLERT. Thank you very much, Mr. Ackerman.

I would like to point out that the Chair got involved in this issue because one evening I was summoned to the office of my colleagues, Congressman Lazio. Seated there was Congresswoman Johnson. For the next half hour or so, I heard the most passionate and compelling case ever made for a piece of legislation.

So I had no alternative, when I walked out, I was just absolutely convinced.

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Chairman, does that mean he doesn't need to do his statement, and we can go right to me?

[Laughter.]

Mr. BOEHLERT. No, I just want to give the Congressman his due. Because he has been a real leader in this effort. The New York and Connecticut delegations are pretty much coming together in this one. But you need a spark. And Rick Lazio and Nancy Johnson have provided that spark.

Mr. Lazio?

Mr. LAZIO. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Let me begin by returning the compliment, because I think in this Nation's capital, you stand by yourself in terms of being an environmental star. You are out there protecting ecosystems and parks from sterling forests to the west coast to south. And now focusing yourself, and adding your name is a co-sponsor and having this hearing for the Long Island Sound, you are once again proving what a stalwart you are.

I want to thank the rest of the Committee as well, and Mr. Borski, for your great help.

I am very proud to, very frankly, be able to testify with Gary Ackerman, my colleague and friend, and Chris Shays, and the lead sponsor, Nancy Johnson, to talk about something I think has great importance, not just for our region, but our Nation.

I would ask you, Mr. Chairman and the rest of the Committee, to try and visualize for a moment, if you can, Yellowstone National Park, really one of America's great national jewels. Conservation managers at that park agonize over the prospect of trying to manage about 3 million visitors who come annually to experience its beauty. They worry about the health of its sensitive ecosystems and the ability of that natural wonder to handle the stresses that the populations put on that system.

But I would now like you to try and visualize that park with 8 million people living directly on the borders, with another 15 million people living within 50 miles of that same body. I don't need to spell out the stresses that this situation would place on the natural system. I don't think I need to detail how the ability of that park to meet the recreational needs of our citizens would be degraded. And I don't think I need to detail how much this Nation would pay to maintain that jewel for the enjoyment of all.

Mr. Chairman, that picture I just described is one we are living with today in the Long Island Sound. This 150 mile long estuary is one of America's natural, multiple-use jewels, providing recreational outlets, commercial fishing, shellfishing and vital transportation corridors for the most heavily populated portion of this Nation. Like Yellowstone, the Sound is a major asset to the regional economy, generating over $5 billion annually.

As Congressman Johnson mentioned, a full 10 percent of this Nation's people live on or near this body of water. To many of these people, the Sound is their opportunity to escape the multitudes, to get in touch with the great outdoors, to escape for the moment the stresses of working and managing the enterprises that are fueling this Nation's economic success.

For these hardworking Americans, a trip to the Long Island Sound is a chance to spend some quality time with their families, a chance to leave behind the stresses of modern day life, a chance to swim and boat and fish. To others, the Sound is a livelihood, a way of life so dramatically removed from the Wall Streets and the Madison Avenues that exist only a few miles away.

This America is one of a lonely lobsterman who sails out every morning to check his traps, or a fisherman trying to land the special of the day for a Manhattan restaurant. This American works in a marina fixing his boats, or in a restaurant serving morning coffee to the sailors.

But to all these Americans, the Sound is increasingly less able to meet their essential needs. Pollution problems in the Sound have degraded the recreational experience. It has reduced the fish and shellfish population. And pollution in the Sound has at least contributed to the dramatic decline in the lobster population that Congressman Ackerman has just referenced.

The Sound's problems are directly located to its location in the heart of America's largest metropolis, a region that has contributed