War on Water Starting Again

By Bob Wendelgass, President & CEO - Follow Bob on Twitter (@BWendelgass) The hearing on EPA's rule to restore Clean Water Act protection to small streams is just the opening salvo in a renewed War on Water. Clean Water Action will be in the thick of the fight...and we'll need your help to win! I say 'renewed War on Water' because this isn't the first time polluters have attacked the Clean Water Act. Way back in 1972 when the Act was first passed, they convinced President Nixon to veto the bill. Fortunately Congress overrode the veto. Then in 1995, polluters and their allies in Congress tried a frontal attack on the Clean Water Act, pushing a rewrite that would have left the law toothless. This Dirty Water Act was passed by the House before dying in the Senate. But the bad bill became a major issue in the next election, costing some members of Congress who supported it their seats. That lesson stopped our opponents in Congress for a few years, but they're back on the attack. Right now, they're starting by attacking EPA's proposal to restore protection to small streams, but they won't stop there. If they win, we can expect future attacks on the science and rules that underpin the entire Clean Water Act. The House and Senate hearing on February 4 is just the start, followed by attempts to pass bills to block the rule already introduced in the House and Senate. Riders will no doubt be inserted into budget bills that would block EPA's rule from being finalized. Other bills to cut EPA's authority will be next, supplemented by cuts in EPA's budget designed to starve it of the resources it needs. This isn't a fight over science. There are no scientists who question whether small streams are connected to bigger ones. This is a political fight. This is about polluters seeing an opportunity to save money by rolling back Clean Water Act requirements. That's great for them, but bad for the rest of us--who'll have to pay more to take pollution out of our drinking water, who won't be able to eat the fish in our lakes and rivers, who'll see our property values drop as our waterways get dirtier. This is a political fight and the only way to win is to show our Members of Congress that siding with polluters instead of voters is a bad idea. We'll need everyone's help to deliver that message, over and over again, starting this week.