Petition for clean water – yes, it’s dirty

It’s no secret we are having water problems. Jon Stewart had Robert Glennon (water expert extraordinaire) on to talk about his new book, Unquenchable.

New Jersey is having water contamination issues. Hawaii (of all places) is having a drinking water shortage. And dozens of less fortunate countries are in need of clean water, a cause that Charity: Water has taken on (and successfully taken some steps forward).

Now you can do your part. The Sierra Club has started a petition that would tell Congress Americans support a stronger Clean Water Act – something that we have been needing for years. You can read an overview of the Clean Water Restoration Act of 2009, but the gist of it is that the Clean Water Act of 1972 safeguarded all of the “waters of the United States,” with several basic protections built into the law, including an oil spill prevention program and the impaired waters cleanup program.

But in 2001, a bare majority of the Supreme Court — in a case called Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — held that non-navigable, intrastate waters are not protected by the Clean Water Act solely because they could serve as habitat for migratory birds. This gave polluters an opening to ramp up a decades-long effort to pressure the EPA and the Corps of Engineers to weaken their rules.

Then, “a March 2008 memorandum from the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance revealed that the nation’s waters are being left without full protections under Clean Water Act — and that alleged polluters are being let off the hook.”

There is a long list of cases, issues and strange sanctioned documents that basically say, sure, ignore the fact you have found / seen / contributed to water pollution. You can read more about it here and in a New York Times editorial, which asserts:

As a result [of the law change], at least 20 million acres of wetlands and as much as 60 percent of the nation’s small streams have been left unprotected, while effectively shutting down enforcement actions against developers who have been disturbing or plan to disturb these waters without a permit.

The Clean Water Restoration Act would establish, once and for all, that federal protections apply to all waters, as Congress intended in 1972. Now a new Congress and a new White House must ensure that it becomes law.

You can help support the Restoration Act by signing this petition – I already did, so it’s your turn!