During a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing last week, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) questioned John Busterud, nominee to be Assistant Administrator for the Office of Solid Waste of the Environmental Protection Agency, about PFAS contamination.
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00:00Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Before we begin with a question from each member,
00:07there are three standing yes or no questions that I will ask all of the three of you if you
00:14could just respond. Do you agree, if confirmed, to appear before this committee or designated
00:18members of this committee and other appropriate committees of this Congress to provide information
00:23subject to appropriate and necessary security protections with respect to your responsibilities?
00:28Yes, Senator. Yes. Thank you. Do you agree to ensure the testimony, briefings, documents,
00:35and electronic and other forms of communication of information are provided to this committee
00:39and its staff and other appropriate committees in a timely manner? Yes, Senator. Yes, Senator.
00:45Yes, Chairman. Thank you. Finally, do you know of any matters which you may or may not have
00:49disclosed that may place you in a conflict of interest if you are confirmed? No. No. No. Great.
00:55Thank you. Okay. I'm going to start my round of questions and I'm going to start with Mr. McMaster.
01:03You mentioned bridges and I think you and I talked about bridges when we had our meeting in the office
01:08and I appreciate all of you for coming to visit. Our geography requires us to have a lot of those
01:14bridges. So we need a strong federal partner in the FHWA. It's critical to our success. You know,
01:21a lot of progress was made and has been making, has been being made with the IIJA. But are there any
01:28policy and funding proposals that we should consider, including in the next reauthorization,
01:33which we're getting work on, to further address regionally significant or bridge projects?
01:40Yes, Senator. I appreciate the question. I know you've...
01:42Is your microphone on? It is. Sorry. Okay.
01:45Senator, I appreciate the question. I know you've been a champion for bridges. For the Federal
01:50Health Administration, bridge safety is a paramount importance issue. It's critical to the safety of
01:55our traveling public. It's critical to our supply chain. As we look to support reauthorization,
02:05there is work still yet to be done. Tremendous progress over the last few years. When I served
02:12at HNTB, I was fortunate to work in support of the Brent Spence Bridge, which after 20 years is
02:19now finally realizing development. I look forward to supporting you if I'm confirmed. I know it's a
02:27paramount importance for the Federal Highway Administration. And I look forward, if confirmed,
02:32to supporting your efforts through reauthorization to identify additional ways we can accelerate the
02:39maintenance and enhancement of our nation's bridge on the highway system.
02:44Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Buster-Rude, addressing PFAS is a top environmental priority that I share
02:51with Administrator Zilda, and I think they're making some announcements today. I was pleased to see
02:57the EPA release an agency-wide plan setting bold goals to tackle this crisis. If confirmed, you will
03:04be responsible for leading OLEM's major role in this strategy from updating PFAS destruction guidance
03:11to enforcing the polluter pays principle. How would you lead in this way and help us
03:19tackle this very difficult and far-ranging problem of PFAS contamination?
03:28Well, thank you, Chairman. PFAS is a high-priority issue for EPA, and the administrator on April 28th,
03:37as you noted, announced a suite of programs basically taking a whole-of-EPA approach to addressing PFAS across
03:45its major program offices. As you noted, and as we discussed in our conversation in your office,
03:52OLEM will play an important role to increase the frequency of guidance we give on PFAS destruction.
03:59It has been every three years. We're going to commit to providing those updates on an annual basis,
04:06and there was great interest in that. OLEM will also look at and examine its RICRA authorities to prevent
04:15releases of PFAS from manufacturing facilities and other facilities which use PFAS. And you mentioned
04:25the polluter pays issue, and I support that entirely. And we will continue with that approach.
04:37The notion of passive receiver, the issue of passive receiver, is very important to a number of
04:42senators on your committee and others. That is an issue that, if confirmed, I pledge to work with our
04:50dedicated career staff and to look at ways in which we can avoid a situation in which customers of water
04:56utilities would be forced to pay for contamination they didn't put in the water to begin with. And I look
05:03forward to working with your committee on that. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Tell, we had a
05:09hearing on Corps of Engineers and the implementation of some of their programs.
05:15This is a daunting challenge, I think, to step into the position that you're in because the slowness
05:24and the sluggishness of some of the work that we know is critical is, I think, universally felt by all
05:31of us. So, and this goes to the fact that the Army Corps is actively working on nearly 100
05:39ongoing feasibility studies and general reevaluation reports.
05:44These will result in projects later on, as you know, in authorizations and appropriations.
05:50How will you ensure that projects and other activities are appropriately prioritized in work
05:55plans and balance the competing water resources in the country?
06:00Chairman Capito, you've identified the fundamental issue as it relates to this nomination, which is,
06:06this is a complex and exhaustive set of challenges. The demand for the Corps' work
06:11is greater than the supply. The Congress is incredibly interested in the, in the projects
06:17and the work of the Corps of Engineers, as you have identified. And the, the core principle,
06:22and when it comes to prioritization in a constrained budget environment, is to follow the law.
06:26And the law says that the Corps' primary missions are navigation, enabling commerce on America's
06:31waterways, flood mitigation and, and control and environmental aquatic ecosystem restoration.
06:39And so those have to be the primary beacons when it comes to prioritization, examining how the
06:46projects meet those missions as the Congress has laid them out, setting priorities on the basis of
06:51benefits versus costs, life and safety, and other factors that ultimately will play into all these
06:57decisions. And it's a complicated one. Thank you. Senator Whitehouse.
07:01Senator Whitehouse. Thank you, Chairman. Mr. McMaster.