The Clean Water Restoration Act, likely to have a House vote
this summer, would affirm Clean Water Act protections for streams and wetlands
that feed America’s most treasured waters like the Great Lakes.
CHICAGO—With families across the region bound for
Great Lakes beaches this fourth of July weekend, Chicago Congressman Dan
Lipinski joined Environment Illinois, Alliance for the Great Lakes, the
Illinois Environmental Council and the Natural Resources Defense Council at the
Shedd Aquarium on Lake Michigan to urge Congress to protect the Great Lakes by
passing the Clean Water Restoration Act (H.R. 2421 and S. 1870). The Act would
restore Clean Water Act protections to all U.S.
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, Program Director at Environment Illinois, which is campaigning
across the state this summer in support of the bill. “That’s why thousands of
Illinoisans are asking Congress to protect the Great Lakes
and pass the Clean Water Restoration Act, which will safeguard all of our
waters from pollution.”
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 (SWANCC-2001 and Rapanos-2006), 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 now
are threatened with losing that protection. U.S. EPA estimates that over half
of Illinois streams are headwater or seasonal
streams, the types of streams most in danger, and over sixty percent of Illinois wetlands,
totaling over 150,000 acres, could also lose protection. Currently, at least
823 polluting facilities are located on at-risk streams and have their
pollution limited by Clean Water Act permits which may no longer be required.
EPA data indicate that over 1,600,000 Illinoisans receive drinking water from
supplies fed at least in part by these streams.
A bipartisan group of 198 members of Congress,
including Illinois Congressman Dan Lipinski, Senator Durbin, and all seven
members of Illinois’s Lake
Michigan delegation, have co-sponsored the Clean Water Restoration
Act. The Restoration Act would clarify that Clean Water Act protections apply
broadly to American surface waters, including streams and wetlands in the Great lakes Region.
"Pollution is not partisan and it knows no
geographic boundaries between countries, between states, between cities, or
between congressional districts," said Illinois Congressman Dan Lipinski
(Western Springs), who sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee, which is expected to vote on the Clean Water Restoration Act in
July. "Everyone has an interest in restoring the nation’s waterways, whether
you want to swim, fish, boat, lie on the beach, or – most importantly – just have
clean water to drink. That is why we must all work together to restore the
health and integrity of the nation’s waters, and 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.
“You don’t have to look far to see the impact of
losing our wetland protections have had on the Midwest.
Look at Iowa.
Look at western Illinois.
Streams and wetlands absorb and slow floodwaters. Losing that natural
protection impacts us all in some pretty concrete ways—from the cost of food,
to the billions in tax dollars that will be needed to fix the damage,” said Josh
Mogerman of the National Resources Defense Council. “Now more than ever,
Congress should affirm that Clean Water Act protections to our few remaining
wetlands.”
"This season's devastating flooding is the
latest reminder of the price we pay when wetlands are destroyed, and nature
loses its ability to soak up rainwater," said Jack Darin, Director of the
Sierra Club, Illinois Chapter. "We need to act now to protect our last remaining wetlands,
before more families are put at risk by future heavy rains."
“When BP proposed to expand its toxic pollution
into Lake Michigan last summer, public outrage and congressional action stopped
the pollution expansion in its tracks—and people throughout the region showed
that they demand a higher standard of care for the Great Lakes,” said Muller.
“But to truly protect our most cherished waters like the Great Lakes, Congress
must pass this bill to protect all of America’s Waters.”
The environmental groups applauded Congressman
Lipiniski, as well as Illinois Senator Durbin and Representatives Bean, Davis,
Emanuel, Gutierrez, Jackson, Kirk, Rush, and Schakowsky and for cosponsoring the
Clean Water Restoration Act. Environment Illinois
delivered several hundred postcards from Illinois
residents thanking Congressman Lipinski for his leadership on the Clean Water
Restoration Act.
“Illinois’s
citizens should know that these elected officials stand for policies that
protect the Great Lakes,” said Muller.
“Congressman Lipinski has helped lead the charge on the Clean Water Restoration
Act in committee, and we look forward to working with him and the rest of Illinois’s delegation to
see it pass both committee and the full House this summer.”
The environmental groups called on the remaining
members of the Illinois
Congressional delegation to support the Clean Water Restoration Act. In
particular, they called on Representatives Timothy Johnson and Jerry Costello
to support the Clean Water Restoration Act in its upcoming committee
