"The House has been voting to roll back environmental laws and endanger public health" - Congressman Henry Waxman

Since 2001, environmentally conscious legislations started becoming less popular. The Environmental Protection Agency, Army Corps of Engineers, and the Clean Water Act (among other acts created to protect the environment) have been increasingly weakened, mostly by House Republicans. According to Chairman John Mica “The Obama Administration and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are pushing a dramatic expansion of federal jurisdiction over waters and wet areas in the United States… Broadening the scope of the Clean Water Act and the federal government's reach into our everyday lives would adversely affect the nation’s economy, threaten jobs, invite costly litigation, and expand the federal government’s authority over state, local and private property rights.” I beg to disagree, having clean drinking water, being able to go kayaking, swimming in the lake, and fishing those are all things we hope to be able to do, those are all rights we deserve as humans. Claiming that those rights threaten jobs is a sorry excuse for weakening such helpful legislations.

During the summer of 1969, a fires broke out on the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio. The river was filled with industrial pollution and oily waste. Earlier in 1952, the river caught fire and cost the city of Cleveland $1.5 million (it would equal $13,098,509.43 today). There were plenty of cases like this, there were also instances where people fell ill due to drinking contaminated water and in one occasion 26 million fish died from contamination in one lake. Between 60 and 70 percent of the water in and around the US was deemed unsafe for fishing, unsafe for swimming, and most of all unsafe for drinking. After seeing how badly things were going environmentally, both parties rallied together and created the Clean Water Act (an add-on to the Federal Water Pollution Act of 1948) and the Environmental Protection Agency. Their hopes were that the EPA would clean up the water, and create guidelines and regulations that would make “a clean and safe environment a reality.”

The Act and the EPA have accomplished many feats since their creation. It has created the structure for regulating pollutants discharges in the waters of the US, made it unlawful for any person to discharge any pollutants into water without a permit; it has also cleared waterways and made public drinking water cleaner. While great, there are still problems that the EPA and CWA face at the moment.  Rivers and lakes still get contaminated through stormwater runoff which is a mixture of rain, oil, and toxic chemicals that seep into our water sources. The EPA hasn’t been granted the ability to combat such pollution and it seems like it won’t be able to for a while. Since the 112^th Congress the House of Representatives have voted 191 times to weaken the CWA claiming the act will cause the EPA to become too powerful and will take away the power from the states. Congressman Waxman said it best “the House Republican’s assault on the environment has been reckless and relentless… the Republican anti- environment agenda is completely out of touch with what the American public wants.” One can’t simply ignore the fact that better jobs, cleaner jobs will be created if only the EPA could expand. These are people who are trying to make the world a better place for everyone not just a few money hungry companies that would trample on the rights of everyone because of money.

                                                    Works Cited

"40 Years of Achievement, 1970-2010." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2012. <http://www.epa.gov/40th/achieve.html>.

"Background: Restoring Clean Water Act Protections | Clean Water Action." Background: Restoring Clean Water Act Protections | Clean Water Action. Clean Water Action, n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2012. <http://www.cleanwateraction.org/feature/background-restoring-clean-water-act-protections>.

"Clean Water Act (CWA)." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, 27 June 2012. Web. 03 Nov. 2012. <http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/lcwa.html>.

Mica, John L. "Preventing Clean Water Act Expansion." Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2012. <http://republicans.transportation.house.gov/singlepages.aspx/807>.

"New Report Details "The Most Anti-Environment House in the History of Congress"" Committee on Energy and Commerce Democrats. N.p., 15 Dec. 2011. Web. 03 Nov. 2012. <http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/index.php?q=news/new-report-details-the-most-anti-environment-house-in-the-history-of-congress>.
 "Clean Water Act Still Essential." POLITICO. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2012. <http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1012/82590_Page2.html>.