Attacks on Clean Water Will Hit Home

March 17, 2011 | Clean Water, Greening Water Infrastructure, Small Streams & Wetlands, Stormwater & Sewage

Stacey Detwiler
Conservation Associate

If you live around the Washington, DC area, chances are the water that you drink and use every day to cook, shower, and wash your clothes with comes from the Potomac River. Running 382 miles from its headwaters in West Virginia to its mouth at the Chesapeake Bay, the Potomac provides drinking water to 4.3 million people (PDF) in DC, Maryland, and Virginia.

No matter where you live, you’ve probably heard or read about the dramatic budget cuts included in the House’s bill to fund the government through the remainder of Federal Fiscal Year 2011. Think that the water you drink has nothing to do with the government’s budget? Think again.

The House bill includes severe cuts to the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds, programs that provide money to the states for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure. In 2009, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave our nation’s water infrastructure a grade of D minus. As we saw with the massive water main break in January that affected 400,000 people in Prince George’s County, MD, the very infrastructure that protects our clean water and drinking water is quite literally failing. Many states are already unable to meet their water infrastructure needs. By dramatically cutting funding to these programs, the health and safety of our communities is at risk.

The bill includes a policy “earmark” (referred to as a rider) that would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from clarifying the scope of the Clean Water Act and closing the loopholes that threaten safe and clean drinking water for our communities. The many small streams and wetlands that form the Potomac River may not be protected under the existing guidelines for the Clean Water Act.

An amendment introduced by Representative Goodlatte from Virginia’s 6th Congressional District puts the burden of cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay on state and local governments by blocking the use of federal funds for pollution reduction and restoration of the Bay. EPA’s restoration plan for the Bay, known as the “pollution diet,” would reduce the flow of pollutants from tributaries like the Potomac River that threatens public health and damages local economies.

These attacks on clean water aren’t just limited to the Potomac River. The same story can be told for communities across the country where people rely upon rivers and streams to supply their water and where treatment plants and other infrastructure are in need of repair. These cuts may seem insignificant on paper, but they put our health and safety at risk by taking away critical investment to protect and provide the very water we drink.

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