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Clean Drinking Water At-Risk
March 4, 2010 | Clean Water, Water Supply
Katherine Baer
Senior Director, Clean Water Program
Over a year ago, I wrote that passing the Clean Water Restoration Act was one of the top priorities for clean water – and it still is. Already it’s been clear that we are losing protections for our small streams and wetlands that provide drinking water for 117 million Americans. As a result of confusing Court cases that place environmental officials in the position of proving again and again and again that small streams flow downstream and are connected to our big rivers, the scope of clean water safeguards has declined significantly.
Now the threats to our clean water and communities are further revealed in an article in the New York Times. New York City, for example, had the foresight to secure the source of their drinking water by paying upstream communities to protect the small streams that flow to NYC – but now, as explained by a New York official: “This is a huge deal… [t]here are whole watersheds that feed into New York’s drinking water supply that are, as of now, unprotected.”
And guess what – polluters are seeing this as an opportunity to pollute more and without any oversight – one Environmental Protection Agency lawyer in the article stated: “We are, in essence, shutting down our Clean Water programs in some states… [t]his [loss of protections] is a huge step backward. When companies figure out the cops can’t operate, they start remembering how much cheaper it is to just dump stuff in a nearby creek.”
Looks like they already have – as reported in the Times, polluters in some states are already claiming that they do not have to report what they are dumping into local streams and an entire Air Force Base in New Mexico has claimed an exemption to the Clean Water Act even though they discharge sewage into a lake.
To protect clean water, we need to restore these vital protections – urge your Representative to support the introduction and passage of the Clean Water Restoration Act.
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Comments List
Submitted by riverrich at: March 11, 2010
We see this constantly on the San Joaquin River in California.This river is used by 2.5 million people for drinking water and yet people are driving their cars thru it in the Fresno area. Changing their oil next to the river, dumping barrels of racing fuel, solvent, etc. The intermittant streams feeding the SJR are even worse. Help!!!!
Submitted by Amy at: March 8, 2010
You're right, it is confusing. Several years ago, the Supreme Court handed down a splintered decision in two cases (Rapanos and Carabell) that asked the Court to narrow the Clean Water Act’s coverage in an attempt to allow discharges of toxic chemicals, sewage, and other pollutants into a great majority of the nation’s streams and wetlands. The confusing outcome from the Court is leading to much uncertainty about what waters are protected, potentially affecting millions of acres of wetlands and 60% of the nation’s stream miles. That's why we need the Clean Water Restoration Act -- to clear up the confusion and restore the historic protections our waters need. To read more about it, visit http://www.americanrivers.org/our-work/clean-water/streams-wetlands/protecting.html
Submitted by Waterguy at: March 5, 2010
This makes no sense to me. You already have to comply with the Clean Water Act (since about 1986). What does this additional legislation do?