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Clean Water Restoration Act Update

Friday, April 3, 2009

(National Wildlife Federation)

Contact: Jan Goldman-Carter, Wetlands and Water Resources Counsel
goldmancarterj@nwf.org; 202-797-6894

Clean Water Restoration Act Update
Clean Water Restoration Act Fact Sheet

It’s official! The Clean Water Restoration Act has been introduced (S. 787) and is on the move. Now is the time to speak up for clean water and healthy wetlands!

Please urge your Senators and Representatives to restore Clean Water Act protections for wetlands, lakes, and streams that are losing protection in the wake of the 2001 Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. Army Corps of Engineers (SWANCC) and 2006 Rapanos v. U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW:
1. While they are back home for the April recess (April 6-17), urge your Senators and Representatives to move quickly to pass legislation to restore Clean Water Act protections for the Nation’s wetlands and streams. Call and schedule in-district meetings with them if you can.

2. Submit a Letter to the Editor to your local paper highlighting the importance of wetlands and small streams for drinking water supplies, flood control, pollution control, fishing and other outdoor recreation. Explain that the Clean Water Restoration Act must be passed to restore Clean Water Act protections for these waters.

3. Send a letter from your organization (or a joint letter from several organizations) to your congressional delegation urging them to pass the Clean Water Restoration Act.

4. Urge your Governor and water quality and natural resource agencies to ask your congressional delegation to pass the Clean Water Restoration Act.

The Clean Water Restoration Act (S. 787) was introduced on April 2, 2009 and should move through the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee this Spring. We expect the House bill to be introduced and moved through the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee soon. These Committee members, in particular, need to hear from you. With each passing day, more wetlands, lakes, and streams are losing Clean Water Act protections and being left vulnerable to pollution and destruction.

With your help, and broad-based support from the Obama Administration, States, environmental groups, sportsmen’s groups, unions, religious organizations and others, early passage of this critical Clean Water legislative fix is well within reach.

The Clean Water Restoration Act will restore Clean Water Act protections by:
* Adopting a statutory definition of “waters of the United States” based on the longstanding definition in EPA and Corps regulations.
* Deleting the term “navigable” from the Act to clarify that Congress’ primary concern in 1972 was to protect the nation’s waters from pollution rather than just sustain the navigability of waterways.
* Including a set of findings that explain the factual basis for Congressional assertion of constitutional authority over waters, including those that appear to be hydrologically “isolated.”
* Preserving the Act’s long-standing exemptions for farming, ranching, mining, and forestry activities.