2 May 2002 @ 23:09, by Mark Smollin
Here is a link from my friend Wendy for a petition to protect our water supply. Please take a few minutes and add your voice of concern.
[link]
Don't Dump Waste in Our Waters
Contributed by Clean Water Network
The Bush administration is very close to finalizing a change to Clean Water Act rules that would modify the Army Corps of Engineers' definition of ''fill'' material and allow industries to dump waste materials into our nation's waters, destroying many streams, rivers, lakes, and wetlands.
The rule change is motivated by the Bush administration's desire to promote mountaintop removal coal mining, where coal companies blow the tops off of mountains to reach seams of coal, then dump millions of tons of waste into nearby streams, burying them and killing all the animals and plants that live there. The new regulation would also allow hardrock mining operations and other industries to bury waters with their wastes.
In October 1999 a federal court found that this practice violated the Clean Water Act and the stream protection provisions of the federal surface mining law. Now, the Army Corps of Engineers and US EPA are trying to change the rules in order to legalize this waste dumping.
Two years ago, the Corps' and EPA made a similar proposal, but after receiving over 17,000 public comments protesting against allowing waste dumps in our waters, the Clinton administration dropped the proposal to change the Clean Water Act rule. Now, the Bush administration is planning to make this change in the rule without even giving the public any notice that this policy is back under consideration. By doing this, the Bush administration is ignoring the purpose of the Clean Water Act -- to protect the integrity of our nation's waters -- and ignoring the thousands of citizens that have already spoken out against this proposal.
Call to action
Urge the President to uphold the Clean Water Act's goal of protecting our nation's waters and stop the rule change that would permit waste dumps in our streams, rivers, lakes, and wetlands.
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