New Legislation Aims To Destroy The Long Standing Clean Water Act.
So while everyone is watching Casey Anthony, Rupert Murdoch and the debt ceiling fight, the Congress has passed a nasty little piece of legislation, or rather gutted an old one with a new one.
The Clean Water Act of 1972 has greatly improved our rivers and streams. Rivers used to catch on fire, and many are still unusable, or have restricted uses (i.e. you cannot eat fish you catch) but they have greatly improved in the last 30 years. The Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act, House Resolution 2018, proposes to kill, or at least maim the Clean Water Act. It’s already been passed in the Congress, and soon goes to the Senate.
Under this new legislation individual states would be free to abuse rivers and lakes based on their perception of what is good for their state. This means fracking or coal mining would be more likely to be approved in areas where the polluted water just runs over some arbitrary man-made boundary. They could choose to ignore the needs of those downstream and in neighboring states despite the consequences in favor of jobs and money for their own state.
Can you imagine the countdown to destruction that will happen as states agree to lower their water quality standards to attract new industries? Each state trying to outdo the others as they have in the financial world. This bill is cronyism at its worst. The environment, the wildlife and we the people are going to lose, while corporations make millions abusing the waterways of America. This bill must be stopped!
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