Clean Water Can’t Wait!

By Ben Davies Long Branch, New Jersey Field Canvass Director Living near the water, whether it’s the lake, the ocean, or a stream, has been an integral part of my life. I took that for granted for so many years. I’ve seen firsthand the impact of pollution on water if protections aren’t in place. That’s why EPA’s proposal to protect the waters of the US is so important to me. I grew up in North Salem – about an hour north of New York City – a place where everybody knew everyone. Nestled among the cottages and barns between North Salem and Southeast, NY sits Peach Lake— where we spent our summers swimming and fishing. The lake is part of the larger Croton Watershed, which contributes to the system of reservoirs providing New York City with a portion of its drinking water. Over time, Peach Lake became so polluted it was considered an “impaired” body of water with degraded water quality and stressed aquatic life. It got so bad that when I put my feet in the water, I couldn’t even see them. I remember the old-timers would say—“when we were kids you could see all the way to the bottom…”  The lake was so over-polluted from chemical runoff from fertilizers and pesticides and failing septic systems. You don’t realize that even the little things you are doing, like fertilizing your lawn, can harm an entire body of water. But what about all of the connecting streams, wetlands, headwaters and seasonal streams? Why should some be protected and not others? Well that’s what’s happening right now. More than half of the nation’s small streams and nearly 20 million acres of wetlands are vulnerable to pollution and destruction because of confusion about whether or not they are protected under the Clean Water Act. These waters provide drinking water for 117 million Americans – that’s one in three people in the U.S.! That’s why we need everybody on board to help #ProtectClean Water. The EPA rule proposal will, after many years, restore the original intent of the Clean Water Act, which was signed into law in the 1970s and says that all of the waters of the U.S. should be swimmable, fishable, and drinkable. Please take action today. Clean water can’t wait!