Defanging the EPA

Excerpt from an email from Marion Hilliard, Chairman of Environmental Concerns/Legislation Committee for the National Garden Clubs, Inc. on July 11, 2011:

Without public hearings HR 2018, the Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011 was approved by the U.S. House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee on June 22, 2011 by a vote of 35-19.  This was the boldest bi-partisan attempt we have seen in years to dismantle the Clean Water Act of 1972.

If this bill passes and become law it would take us back to the times when there was a patchwork quilt of laws and standards - when states made decisions on dumping untreated sewage or toxic chemicals into rivers and streams that traveled through neighboring states.

Please know that this bill would:
- Overturn almost 40 years of Federal legislation by preventing EPA from protecting public health and water quality;
-  Prevent EPA from providing its views on whether a proposed project that pollutes or even destroys lakes, streams or wetlands would violate CWA standards;
-  Remove EPA's existing state coordination role and eliminate the careful Federal/State balance established in the current CWA;
-  Prevent EPA from protecting communities from unacceptable adverse impacts to the water supplies and the environment caused by Federal permits;
-  Substantively eliminate the opportunity for EPA, the federal government's expert of water quality, to comment on Federal permits impacting water quality and public health;
and would limit the EPA Administrator's capabilities as outlined in the Technical Analysis of H.R. 2018.  

Marion's Verbal Comments:
The proposed bill H.R. 2018 is part of a tsunami wave of anti-environmental bills and riders being pushed on Capitol Hill and across states to weaken laws that keep our drinking water and waterways clean and safe.  Our health depends on a strong CWA.  Is it realistic that we should turn back the clock to times of dirtier rivers, lakes. streams and coastal areas?  Are we asking for a return of environmental disasters similar to New York's "Love Canal" and Pennsylvania's "on-fire river" ?   
 
Marion Hilliard

Chairman

Environmental Concerns/Legislation Committee 

National Garden Clubs, Inc.

Status of H.R. 2018 - PASSED the House and is in the Senate for debate.