Protecting the Great Lakes
As families across the region headed to the Great Lakes beaches for the 4th of July weekend, Chicago Congressman Dan Lipinski joined Environment Illinois and partner environmental groups at the Shedd Aquarium to urge Congress to pass the Clean Water Restoration Act. The Act would restore Clean Water Act protections to all United States waterways, from streams and wetlands to the nation’s most iconic waters like the Great Lakes.
“The Great Lakes can only be as healthy as the streams and wetlands that feed and clean them,” said Max Muller, Environment Illinois’s program director. “That’s why thousands of Illinoisans are asking Congress to protect the Great Lakes and pass the Clean Water Restoration Act.”
Environment Illinois campaigned across Illinois in support of the bill this summer, gathering over 15,000 postcards from Illinoisans supportive of the act.
Restoring a legacy of protection
In 1972, Congress passed the Clean Water Act with the goals of eliminating the discharge of pollutants into waterways and making all U.S. waters swimmable and fishable. However, two recent Supreme Court rulings, combined with new Bush administration policies, have put thousands of U.S. waterways at risk of unlimited pollution and development.
Under these court decisions and administration policies, waters protected by the Clean Water Act for over three decades are now in danger of losing that protection. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that over half of Illinois streams are headwater or seasonal streams, the types of streams most in danger; more than 60 percent of Illinois wetlands could also lose protection.
Currently, at least 823 polluting facilities are located on streams that have their pollution limited by Clean Water Act permits — permits which may no longer be required. EPA data indicate that over 1.6 million Illinoisans receive drinking water from supplies fed at least in part by these endangered streams.
Growing support for cleaner waterways
A bipartisan group of 198 members of Congress, including Rep. Lipinski, Sen. Dick Durbin and all seven members of Illinois’s Lake Michigan delegation, have co-sponsored the Clean Water Restoration Act. The bill would clarify that Clean Water Act protections apply to all American surface waters, including streams and wetlands in the Great Lakes region.
“Pollution is not partisan and it knows no geographic boundaries,” said Rep. Lipinski, who sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which voted on the Clean Water Restoration Act in July. “That’s why we must all work together to restore the health and integrity of the nation’s waters. The Clean Water Restoration Act is an important step.”
The loss of Clean Water Act protections for streams and wetlands would harm downstream waterways. These smaller waterways supply water, filter out pollution, trap sediment, control floods and provide some of Illinois’s most diverse habitat for fish, birds and other wildlife.
