EPA Drops Poopy Water Policy

[kerrygoddess]

Other important news in the Congress today...

EPA Drops Poopy Water Policy, Congress Passes Anti-Sewage Dumping Amendment
19 May 2005

Yesterday I posted about the EPA’s proposal to allow sewage treatment plants to discharge inadequately treated human waste into our waterways. In a victory today for public health and safe drinking water, Congress moved to stop the EPA’s extremist "blending" policy.

Extremist? You betcha… Sewer overflows contain germs (fecal coliform, cryptosporidium, hepatitis, dysentery, and others) that cause serious and potentially deadly diseases. The EPA’s proposal is yet another example of the crappy radical policies of this administration, geared towards corporations making a buck and not the well being of our citizens.

EPA's proposed sewage "blending" policy, first proposed in November 2003, would have allowed sewage treatment plants to bypass full sewage treatment - the required standard since passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972 - any time it rains.

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives lead by Congressmen Bart Stupak (D-MI), Clay Shaw (R-FL), Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Jeff Miller (R-NJ) championed an amendment to the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill to stop EPA's "sewage blending" policy as the House considered the bill today. The anti-sewage dumping amendment was adopted by a voice vote after Rep. Charles Taylor (news, bio, voting record) (R-NC), chairman of the appropriations committee, said he was willing to accept the amendment.

http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=921

[Jim Sagle]

1. Shit happens. But does it have to happen to our water supply?