Changes in Water Policy Opposed (more than 50% of House sign ltr)

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-waters26nov26,1,2650515.story?coll=la-home-nation

Changes in Water Policy Opposed
By Elizabeth Shogren Times Staff Writer November 26, 2003

WASHINGTON — Just more than half of the members of the House of Representatives on Tuesday urged President Bush to drop regulatory changes that could reduce the number of streams and wetlands protected under the Clean Water Act.

They asked the president in a letter to abandon a rulemaking process launched in January and to rescind guidance sent to regulators telling them how to interpret a 2001 Supreme Court ruling. The letter was signed by 218 legislators, including 26 Republicans.

"The Clean Water Act is a landmark piece of legislation which shouldn't be diluted," said Rep. Jim Saxton (R-N.J.), one of the letter's authors. "Congress has few responsibilities greater than preserving clean water for future generations, and improving the quality of water damaged by many years of neglect."

The letter was one of the broadest congressional efforts to curb the string of actions the Bush administration has taken to ease environmental regulations. A similar letter was sent to the president by 26 senators, none of them Republicans.

"Excluding waters from the Clean Water Act will lead to unregulated discharges of pollution into streams, ponds and wetlands and, as this pollution flows downstream, greater pollution of our lakes, rivers and coastal waters," the letter from the House members declared.<snip>

[Kolesar]

1. Clean Water is a message that could cripple the Pugs in '04

Their reps and Senators should be scared of this issue. I see we got all of 26 Goop Reps to sign on. That is not very enlightened, to put it nicely. Here is the Sierra Club message:
http://democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=115&topic_id=2916