Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Dave Brat’s remarks on clean water legislation for the Town of Louisa:

Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.) spoke to the House Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans about his bill that would provide the Town of Louisa, a small rural town with 1600 residents in the 7^th district, regulatory relief so its citizens may have access to safe drinking water.

The town has had to battle two different Federal agencies, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Park Service, in order to bring the town’s water into compliance. It has spent millions of dollars in the process. Rep. Brat asked that the National Park Service allow use of a small piece of land so that the town can use a well and provide safe drinking water.

In 2009, it was discovered that the town’s water had too much acid which violated an EPA regulation. It was placed under a “Consent Order” in 2015 to take corrective actions to bring the water back into compliance. The Town of Louisa would like to use a well located on a property that it received a National Park Service grant for to dilute the water, but it needs approval from the National Park Service. The town has already waited over a year and spent millions on this project.

“Access to safe drinking water is important to everyone, especially in small rural towns, like the Town of Louisa,” said Rep. Dave Brat. “Clean and safe water is a life source… The town and the Water Authority have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to perform engineering studies and undertake costly construction projects in an effort to come into compliance with the EPA rule.”

“Imagine not being able to drink the water out of your own faucet,” he said. “And imagine being told as a Town Manager that you can’t take action to address this problem without first going through a long bureaucratic process; a process that has already taken over a year with no end in sight. The town hasn’t even received a date as to when they might receive an answer from the Park Service, because it’s contingent on the town finding another tiny piece of land to “repay” to the Park Service.”

“There is very little the town can do to decrease the concentration level of acids from the current water source, and it has tried many different options to bring the water into compliance,” he added.

“The town has been trying to comply with not one, but two federal agencies in a process that’s been ongoing for years. The citizens need access to safe water now, not in a year,” said Rep. Brat.

The Town of Louisa wants to repurpose the boundary of the park where the well is; and they believe the project would have no greater environmental impact than the construction of a public restroom. The town has been working with the Park Service to try and come to an agreement on providing an exemption from the conversion, or to find a suitable portion of land that complies with the conversion requirements.

“But this process has been long and the town’s project needs to move forward with all deliberate speed so that its residents can have safe clean drinking water as soon as possible,” said Rep. Brat. “Time is of the essence… we must quickly take all actions to bring the town’s drinking water back into compliance and restore the public’s confidence in one of our most valuable natural resources, clean water.”

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