There was a time in America’s history when rivers were so polluted that they caught fire.
A time when Lake Erie was pronounced “dead.”
Even our own Huron River ran different colors, depending on which industry was dumping its waste that day (see HRWC blog post for October 17, below).
We’ve come a long way since then thanks to the Clean Water Act, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. But now the U.S. Senate is considering a bill, S. 3558, that could undo decades of progress and attack the heart of the Clean Water Act.
Our friends at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) have made it easy to speak up for clean water through the link below:
Urge your senators to oppose this dirty water bill and defend our clean water legacy.
The Clean Water Act is an American success story: Our nation’s waters are far cleaner today than they were 40 years ago. More waters are available for fishing, swimming and as drinking water sources. The act also protects wetlands, which help filter pollutants and limit flooding.
But S. 3558 would undermine that progress and jeopardize the health of our waters. This bill weakens the Clear Water Act in two critical ways:
- It limits the federal government’s ability to enforce clean water standards.
- It restricts the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to protect our waters from the most destructive waste dumping proposals.
We simply cannot afford to roll back 40 years of progress by allowing our waters to become increasingly polluted and dangerous.