Clean Water Act

While every news station is repeating the over played debate clips or gushing over Honeybooboo, the butchery of the Clean Water Act is going on largely unbeknownst to the public. Peter Lehner, wrote on this issue in the Opinions section of Politico. In this article he attempts to inform the public of how Republicans in the House of Representatives and some in Congress want to throw out key provisions of the Clean Water Act. He starts off by showing the reader the effects of the Act, the fact that the tap water we drink is safe, the beach and the surrounding waters in which we swim in are safe, and we are still able to go fishing.  Before the law was passed in 1972, rivers caught fire, millions of fish died due to contamination, and raw sewerage was constantly dumped into rivers and lakes.  He claims that at the time “between 60 and 70 percent of America’s lakes, rivers, and coastal water were considered unsafe for fishing and swimming in 1972.

The basic argument is: not only do we have to protect the Clean Water Act, we have to go beyond what it originally states and augment it to deal with new issues involving the cleanliness of our water such as the hazardous effects of polluted storm water contaminating our rivers and lakes. He also argues that the EPA, not the House of Representatives or the Senate should oversee the Act; the EPA should go beyond preserving the cleanliness of the water and promote green infrastructure.

When I read the article I was touched by the fact that someone took it upon themselves to. That was until I read that Lehner is the executive director of the Nation Resources Defense Council, it kind of took me aback and made me think “well this changes things” could he have some hidden agenda other than to inform the public about this atrocity? I don’t know, but the fact of the matter is, this article brought light to something that affects millions of people and if the Act gets weakened it could have detrimental effects on our lives. I looked for an article that supported or criticized the article and I found a brief history on the Act on PBS which seems to strengthen the legitimacy of the article. I am convinced that we need to do something to ensure that the CWA remains intact, I just can't understand why states would want to trade the health of their inhabitants for money. Drinkable water is running out and they want to pollute the little we have left.