Your right to clean water is in danger!

Via the Cahaba River Society. Your right to clean water is in danger! Send your written comments to EPA by November 28 to Defend the Clean Water Act!

EPA is trying to greatly narrow the coverage of the Clean Water Act, rewriting the rules so that wetlands without a surface connection to a larger river and small headwater streams no longer are protected.
But wetlands and upland streams cannot be polluted, filled, or destroyed without causing damage to downstream drinking water supplies, water quality, wildlife, recreation and other human uses. 

Here's how you can make a difference:

  • Your written comments can be submitted to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OW-2017-0480 here - the deadline is November 28. See suggested bullet points below and read CRS' comment letter here
  • Sign on to a letter from National Parks and Conservation Association  - If you're looking for an easy sign-on to a letter, this is a good one that focuses on the value of public lands and waters and the economic value of outdoor recreation. The letter and sign on is here: https://goo.gl/forms/3L0VZy8btMp05pAo2

CRS is part of a national coalition, Clean Water for All, that is bringing sound science and local experience about protecting water resources to EPA's process to redefining Waters of the US, or WOTUS, which determines which waterways are covered under the Clean Water Act.

Your comment letter can cover these points:

  • Ensure clean water protections extend to all streams and adjacent wetlands and other waterbodies that science shows to be ecologically or economically important for our outdoor way of life.

  • Recognize that the health of larger water bodies depends on the health of smaller waters by grounding any changes to federal policy in sound wetland and stream science.

  • Incorporate the work done to develop the Clean Water Rule, finalized in 2015, and consider that work as a starting point for determining future changes.

  • Do not rely on legal interpretations that include only "relatively permanent waters" and wetlands with a "continuous surface connection" to those waters as these will limit the scope of the Clean Water Act.

  • Ensure an inclusive, transparent, and robust public process equal to that of the 2015 rulemaking.

--
Randall C. Haddock, PhD
Cahaba River Society
2717 7th Avenue South, Suite 205
Birmingham, AL 35233
 
205 322-5326 ext 412
Cell: 205 903-7020
www.cahabariversociety.org