By:
Administrator
_ Aerospace Cancer Museum of Education _ American Rivers _
Anahuak Youth Sports Association _ Butte Environmental Council _
California Sportfishing Protection Alliance _ Clean Water Action _
CleanUpRocketdyne.org _ Community Water Center _ Defenders of
Wildlife _ East Bay Watershed Center _ Environment California _ Fish
Sniffer Magazine _ Friends of the Los Angeles River _ Friends of
Trinity River _ Planning and Conservation League _ Lassen Forest
Preservation Group _ Protect Our Water _ The River Project _ Rose
Foundation for Communities and the Environment _ San Jerardo
Cooperative, Inc _ San Joaquin Et Al _ San Joaquin Raptor Rescue
Center _ San Joaquin Valley Conservancy _ Sierra Club _ Sierra
Nevada Alliance _ Urban Semillas _ Winnemem Wintu Tribe _
September 9, 2008
RE: Support Clean Water: Help Enact H.R. 2421/S. 1870
Dear Member of Congress:
Full Clean Water Act protections for the nation's waters, including the many streams, rivers, ponds, wetlands, and lakes that supply drinking water, recreation opportunities, commercial
fishing, and wildlife habitat are being lost. Without these protections, it will be easier to pave over wetlands and dump waste into small streams – adversely affecting our
communities in California.
On behalf of our membership and supporters throughout California, we are writing to ask for your support for the Clean Water Restoration Act of 2007 (H.R. 2421/ S. 1870), which will
help to ensure clean water for our state. If you are not yet a cosponsor, we urge you to add your name to this bill today. Passage of the Clean Water Restoration Act will make certain
that the streams, tributaries, wetlands, rivers, lakes, and coastal waters Congress originally intended to be protected from pollution by the 1972 Clean Water Act will remain protected now and for future generations.
The loss of Clean Water Act protections for the large network of headwater and seasonal streams that provides us with drinking water is of special concern. These streams are the
drinking water sources for more than 14 million Californians, according to U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency data.
One example of a drinking water source at risk is the Santa Ana River, which lies south and east of Los Angeles. This critical river is the main drinking water source for Orange County
and its surrounding areas, where population is projected to continue growing for decades to come. Eighty-nine percent of this arid watershed is fed by streams that only flow seasonally
or after rainstorms. The recent split Supreme Court decisions and confusing Bush administration guidance on the Clean Water Act could leave the majority of this watershed unprotected, allowing the unlimited discharge of waste into these streams and endangering local communities’ drinking water sources. Not only are drinking water sources in southern California at risk, but if these small tributaries are degraded or destroyed, downstream water quality will inevitably suffer.
The Los Angeles River watershed is another area at great risk. On June 4, 2008, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a ruling that puts all federal Clean Water protections at
great risk for many headwater streams and wetlands in the Los Angeles River basin. The Corps ruled that only two small stretches of the Los Angeles River, totaling just eight
percent of the entire river miles is “traditionally navigable” under the Clean Water Act. This ruling makes it far less likely that federal Clean Water Act protections would be applied to
the small streams that flow into the rest of the Los Angeles River, threatening the health of those waters and the quality of the Los Angeles River itself and greatly undermining plans to
revitalize the River. The Los Angeles River is over 50 miles long, flowing from the suburbs of the San Fernando Valley to the ocean in Long Beach. Originally, the Los Angeles River
meandered through wetlands and marshes delivering needed water for the parched region.
The implications of the Corps’ ruling are so dire that the Environmental Protection Agency recently opted to review the Corps’ decision.
These are just two recent examples in California of how the Clean Water Act’s long-standing anti-pollution defenses are now in jeopardy.
Just last month, Congressman James Oberstar and Congressman Henry Waxman released an internal U.S. EPA memo showing that hundreds of Clean Water Act enforcement cases
have either been dropped completely or made lower priorities due to uncertainty about whether those waters are within the scope of the Clean Water Act. These cases involved oil
spills, pollution discharges and illegal filling of wetlands.
These decisions and actions are turning back the clock on conservation and denying the protections of the Clean Water Act. Because of two Supreme Court rulings and muddled
Bush administration guidance, the EPA and Corps are doing little to conserve small streams and wetlands. At stake is everything from the Santa Ana River Watershed to the LA River.
In response to this threat, Chairman James Oberstar, Congressman Vernon Elhers, Congressman John Dingell, Senator Barbara Boxer, and Senator Russ Feingold have championed legislation that would restore the benefits of Clean Water Act protections to these waters. The Clean Water Restoration Act would simply adopt the existing regulatory definition (in place since the 1970s) to confirm that all "waters of the United States" are protected under the Act.
The Clean Water Act has done more than any other law to protect California’s waters from unregulated pollution and destruction. Congress must reaffirm and restore critically needed protections for the streams, wetlands and other waters now at risk in California. We urge you to support the Clean Water Restoration Act.
Sincerely,
William Preston Bowling
ACME (Aerospace Cancer Museum of Education)
Melissa Samet
Founder/Director Senior Director, Water Resources
American Rivers, California Field Office
Raul Macias
Anahuak Youth Sports Association
Barbara Vlamis
Executive Director Executive Director
Butte Environmental Council
Bill Jennings
California Sportfishing Protection Alliance
Jennifer Clary
Executive Director and Chairman Policy Analyst
Clean Water Action
Christina Walsh
Founder & Director
CleanUpRocketdyne.org
Laurel Firestone
Co-Executive Director
Community Water Center
Joshua Basofin
California Representative Defenders of Wildlife
Robin Freeman
Coordinator
East Bay Watershed Center
Dan Jacobson
Legislative Director Environment California Fish
Dan Bacher
Editor
Sniffer Magazine
Shelly Backlar
Executive Director
Friends of the Los Angeles River
Byron Leydecker, JCT
Chair
Friends of Trinity River
Jim Brobeck
Forest Policy Analyst
Lassen Forest Preservation Group
Traci Sheehan
Executive Director
Planning and Conservation League
Steve Burke
Spokesperson
Protect Our Water (POW)
Melanie Winter
Founder & Director
The River Project
Tim Little
Executive Director
Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment
Horacio Amezquita
General Manager
San Jerardo Cooperative, Inc
Maureen McCorry
Director San Joaquin Et Al
Lydia Miller
President
San Joaquin Raptor Rescue Center
Bill Hatch
Board Member
San Joaquin Valley Conservancy
Jim Metropulos
Senior Advocate
Sierra Club – California
Joan Clayburgh
Executive Director
Sierra Nevada Alliance
Miguel Luna
Executive Director
Urban Semillas
Mark Franco
Headman
Winnemem Wintu Tribe
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