It's About Time

By Bob Wendelgass, President and CEO (Follow Bob on Twitter - @BWendelgass) Thanks to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) for finally announcing critical steps to fix a mess the Bush Administration made back in 2002.  That’s when EPA and the Corps  “broke” the Clean Water Act by removing its protection from many small streams and wetlands.  A lot has happened since (more on that later this week), but this is the first real progress on this issue in a long time. Over the past twelve years, Clean Water Action and our allies worked to get the US Congress to fix the problem.  We got the “Clean Water Authority Restoration Act”, the “Clean Water Restoration Act” and, later, ”America’s Commitment to the Clean Water Act” introduced. While these bills generated board support in Congress and among faith groups, environmentalists, and conservation, fishing, and hunting organizations, none ever crossed the finish line.  And frankly, the prospects for getting a bill through the current anti-environment Congress are pretty close to zero! So now the Obama Administration is tackling  the issue, announcing on March 25, 2014  plans to issue a formal rulemaking that would restore protection to most small streams and wetlands.  Restoring this protection would take us closer to the way that the Clean Water Act operated under Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton… closer to the way the Act was originally intended to work...and closer to the way that water works in the real world! On behalf of the more than 117 million Americans whose drinking water is at risk until this problem  is fixed …and the millions of Americans who hunt and fish…and the millions of Americans potentially affected by flooding and flood damage … thanks to EPA and the Corps for taking action to protect clean water and our communities! Send comments in support of the Administration's action today!