OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR ROBERT TORRICELLI
COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS
JANUARY 17. 2001

I would first like to acknowledge Senator Jon Corzine and Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen, and thank them for joining me here today to introduce Governor Whitman. I would also like to congratulate our Governor - how proud her husband, John, and children, Kate and Taylor must be. It is special honor for me to introduce her to the committee. I have known her and her family for years, and we have worked together on many issues. During her years as Governor we have waged many fights together from open space preservation to ending ocean dumping.

President Bush has made a wise selection. The EPA and the country will be getting an Administrator who is qualified, battle-tested and ready to tackle the challenges that lie ahead for this Agency.

With this nominee, there will be no learning curve.

There are few training grounds that could better prepare someone for this position than the Governor of New Jersey. As Chief Executive of the State, Gov Whitman has the managerial and administrative experience of running an agency as large as the EPA. But more importantly, no state has a better sampling of the issues facing the incoming Administrator of the EPA than New Jersey.

With 127 miles of shoreline, Whitman has dealt extensively with issues of clean water and non-point source pollution. She knows first-hand the threats to the economy and the environment from ocean dumping. Gov Whitman has increased funding for beach cleanups, and under her watch, beach closings have dropped from 800 in 1989 to just 11 in 1999. New Jersey has been praised by the Natural Resources Defense Council for having the nation's most comprehensive beach monitoring system.

With more Superfund sites than any other state in the Union (111), she knows what works and what doesn't in the Superfund program. She has seen the value of a concerted effort to turn urban brownfields into productive industrial and commercial sites. Sharpe James, the mayor of New Jersey's largest city, has endorsed her because of her efforts on brownfields.

During her tenure as Governor, Christie Whitman brought innovative technologies to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to improve efficiency within the Department's permitting processes. This investment has paid off. For example, it has allowed for the expedited remediation of brownfields sites in New Jersey's urban centers.

With the many dense urban centers in New Jersey, she has dealt with the complex funding and regulatory issues of upgrading dilapidated sewer systems and controlling combined sewer overflow.

As Governor of our nation's most developed state, she initiated and passed a landmark $1 billion bond measure to preserve open space. By the time it is finished, we will preserve one million acres of farmland, pristine forest and watersheds, and urban parkland. Few elected officials in this nation, yet alone, this Cabinet, have a better understanding of what is needed to curb sprawl and protect our open spaces, than Christie Whitman.

But more than her record of environmental progress, what makes Gov Whitman uniquely qualified for this position is her understanding that economic and environmental progress are not mutually exclusive goals. For example, travel and tourism generates $28 billion in revenue and employs nearly 800,000 people in Central and Southern New Jersey. No issue is more important to those jobs than ocean quality.

Yet the Port of NY/NJ is a vital component of economic growth and employment in the northern part of NJ contributing $20 billion annually to the economy and supporting nearly 200,000 jobs. I have worked with Gov Whitman to balance these constituencies and develop a policy that ended ocean dumping while still allowing for the continuation of the dredging necessary for the Port's continued growth.

The job for which Governor Whitman comes before this committee is by no means an easy one. The challenges faced by the next Administrator are both numerous and difficult.

The Superfund and Clean Water and Clean Air Acts have not been re-authorized in a decade and there are new challenges on the horizon, especially in our urban areas.

Our urban centers have sewer systems that were built at the turn of the 19th Century. They frequently back-up and endanger public health and water quality because they are incapable of handling overflow.

Too often industries unwanted anywhere else find homes on city blocks because of the jobs they offer and the taxes they pay. The next Administrator must make a priority of closing the gap between available funds and infrastructure needs and ensuring that environmental justice is more than a think tank slogan.

I am confident that Governor Whitman will do this and more.

The challenges ahead are many. Protecting our drinking water and purifying our air, preserving open space and reforming Superfund.

But President Bush could not have selected a nominee with more experience and commitment than Governor Whitman.

I have the utmost confident that she will do this committee and her home state very proud.