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Leadership

President:
Denise Woods

Vice President:
Mary Lohman

Exec. Secretary:
Guy Marentettte

Rec. Secretary:
Janet Dando

Treasurer:
Bobbie Carper

Assistant Treasurer:
Jim Laurenson

Members-at-Large:
Nancy Clem
Sherrie Weitzenhoff
Todd Schneider

Communications:
Ingrid Kunstel

Outreach:
Mary Starbuck

Issues & Education:
Steve Cochran

Leadership Development:
John Cross

Fundraising:
Richard King

 

The Gross National Debt


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May 1, 2009

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES TEAM

PROTECT OUR CLEAN WATER


ACTION

Call Ohio Senator George Voinovich and ask him to support the Clean Water Restoration Act of 2009.  The bill number is S. 787


CONTACT INFO

Click below in order to get the phone number or e-mail link for Senator Voinovich
http://voinovich.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm

 

ISSUE

In 1972, the Clean Water Act was passed,with wide bipartisan and public support, making rivers, streams, wetlands, lakes, and coastal waters safe for fishing, swimming and other recreation, suitable for our drinking water supply and agricultural and industrial uses, and available for wildlife and fish habitat. 

 In 2001, however, the activist Republican justices on the Supreme Court narrowly interpreted the Clean Water Act protections to apply only to "navigable" waters, rivers and lakes deep enough to support boat traffic.  This ruling removed many bodies of water from the protection of the Clean Water Act and these waters have been disturbed, polluted, or destroyed by developers at an alarming rate. 

According to our new EPA Director, Lisa Jackson, the system of protections on which we had come to depend is now paralyzed.  The Clean Water Restoration Act will solve this problem by redefining the bodies of water originally covered by the Clean Water Act and restoring protections to smaller rivers, streams, lakes, and wetlands crucial to the quality of our water supply. 

The opposition is attempting to create the impression that this bill greatly expands the powers of the federal government over every puddle and rivulet, choking off appropriate development, and crippling our economy.  The Republican Ranking Minority Member on the committee, the notorious James Inhofe, has even argued that every depression in the front lawn of city homes could be governed by this law, but in fact, the bill explicitly limits regulation to only those bodies of water that had been protected prior to the 2001 Supreme Court decision.  Corporations and developers are spending millions to defeat this bill, because taking responsibility for safeguarding clean water cuts into company profits.  This bill is currently in the Senate Committee on the Environment, on which our Senator Voinovich sits.  His is one of three crucial votes for the passage of this bill.  Our Senator Sherrod Brown is a co-sponsor of the bill. 


TALKING POINTS

  1. Water is increasingly scarce in some parts of the country.  Protecting our clean water supply is vital to our health and to our economic growth.
  2. This bill will redefine and restore protection to the bodies of water that were originally intended to be protected.
  3. The EPA is paralyzed because regulators can’t tell which waterways are protected since the court ruling.
  4. Millions of Ohioans get their water from sources that are currently threatened with pollution.


MORE INFO

Watch the Committee Hearing on this bill on April 9th.  Interestingly, Senator Voinovich was not present at this hearing. http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=116d6ddd-802a-23ad-4f2f-4d329c912bb2
Read the remarks made by Senator Russ Feingold when he introduced this bill on the floor of the Senate.
"Every day that Congress fails to act, more and more rivers, streams, wetlands and other waters that have long been protected by the Clean Water Act are being stripped of their Clean Water Act protections and being polluted or destroyed altogether."   
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?r111:1:./temp/~r111ase6uJ:e27424:

Read an editorial in the New York Times.  "The assumption was that even the smallest waters have some hydrological connection to larger watersheds and therefore deserve protection. "  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/opinion/17fri2.html

 

 

 

Previous Alerts:

URGE FUNDING FOR THE AKRON FOODBANK

SUPPORT STEVE DYER REGARDING CHARTER SCHOOLS

SUPPORT LOCAL COMMUNITY RADIO

SUPPORT UNIVERSAL INTERNET

URGE ABC TO AIR AL GORE’S AD

STOP BUSH SECRECY

STOP CROSS-OWNERSHIP OF TELEVISION AND NEWSPAPERS 

SUPPORT LOCAL COMMUNITY RADIO

DON’T LET BUSH WIRETAP YOU

MAKE MSNBC STOP BEING SEXIST IN ITS REPORTING

GET THE FEC BACK INTO OPERATION FOR THE ELECTION

CLOSE GUANTANAMO PRISON

MUKASEY CONFIRMATION AS ATTORNEY GENERAL

STOP CORPORATE MONOPOLIES ON OUR NEWS AND INFORMATION

OPPOSE SPAKOVSKY NOMINATION TO FEDERAL ELECTIONS COMMISSION

 



Our Next Meeting

 

Join SCPD PAC on Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at 6:30 pm in meeting room 2 of the Main Akron Public Library, 60 South High Street.

Parking is free in the attached parking deck after 6:00 pm. We hope to see you there!

 

SCPD Friends


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