More Attacks on Our Water

By Bob Wendelgass, President and CEO - Follow Bob on Twitter (@BWendelgass) If you were following the news stories about the appearances by the Republican Presidential candidates in Iowa over the weekend, you saw a number of new attacks on EPA’s proposal to restore protection for small streams under the Clean Water Act. The attacks weren’t a surprise, but they were disappointing and wrong. The attacks were disappointing because protecting our water and our environment used to be a bi-partisan goal.  The Clean Water Act passed with overwhelming bi-partisan support in 1972.  Both Republicans and Democrats recognized that the patchwork system of state protections in place then was not enough to protect our water.  The fundamental problem is that water doesn’t respect state boundaries.  So a state like Maryland can’t protect its water unless every upstream state does the same.  And that wasn’t happening, leading to lakes dying and rivers catching on fire. The other thing I noticed about the comments the candidates were making about EPA’s proposal is that they were universally wrong.  EPA’s proposal is not a huge power grab…it restores some of the changes that were made in the Bush Administration, but still leaves the Clean Water Act weaker than it was under Ronald Reagan!  The rule won’t shut down farming or make farmers get expensive permits…normal farming activities remains exempted under the Act. One candidate suggested that the rule should be voluntary.  Giving polluters the choice whether to destroy streams that provide drinking water to 1 in 3 Americans is...insane! Polluting the sources of our drinking water shouldn’t be an option, it should be a crime.  That’s what EPA is proposing…and that’s why Clean Water Action is going all-out to make sure EPA’s proposal gets adopted. Join us!