Restoring the Clean Water Act Will Preserve Habitat and Drinking Water By Senator Russ Feingold Duluth News Tribune April 9, 2008 The outdoors is an important part of who we are and the way we live in the upper Midwest. Hunters, anglers, boaters and other outdoor enthusiasts come from far and wide to enjoy everything our beautiful landscape has to offer. In our communities, there is a heartfelt commitment to protecting that landscape and the wildlife habitat it provides. The health of our rivers, streams and all our waters is vital for birds, fish, deer and other wildlife. It’s also essential to providing clean drinking water to millions of Americans. Abandon protections for these waters, and you jeopardize critical wildlife habitats and sources of drinking water for communities all across the country. And failing to protect waters upstream also affects water downstream, including the pristine beauty of Lake Superior and the other Great Lakes, which are among our most celebrated natural resources. For years, those upstream waters, including isolated wetlands and headwater streams, were protected by the Clean Water Act, which has always had broad support across the political spectrum since being enacted in 1972. But recent Supreme Court decisions have jeopardized those protections, putting nearly 20 million acres of wetlands habitat and more than 50 percent of our stream miles in the lower 48 states at risk of becoming polluted or wiped out altogether unless Congress takes action. We need to stand up for clean drinking water, and for the waters and wildlife that have given so much to generations of Midwesterners. That’s where the Clean Water Restoration Act comes in. I have joined with Minnesota Rep. Jim Oberstar, who has been a strong advocate for clean water, to introduce this bill to accomplish one basic and important goal — ensure that the Clean Water Act stays in place. There are no new regulations in our legislation, only a return to the strongly supported Clean Water Act that has protected our waters for more than 35 years. The Clean Water Restoration Act reaffirms the original intent of Congress and longstanding Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps regulations that allow protection of wetlands and streams crucial for larger habitats and ecosystems to survive. Groups that have fought for years in the interest of hunters and anglers, such as Ducks Unlimited and the Izaak Walton League, are supporting the Clean Water Restoration Act, as well as a wide array of organizations, governors, attorneys general, state agencies, professional societies and associations, labor and business professionals, unions, farming organizations and conservation organizations — all joined in defense of the Clean Water Act of 1972. Unless we act now, waters across the upper Midwest will not be protected by the Clean Water Act from sewage discharges, industrial pollution and other pollution. That includes parts of the Lake Superior Basin, putting at risk a body of water that is at the heart of recreation and commerce for parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin, in addition to the lake’s role in providing drinking water and habitat for fish and wildlife. Unfortunately, some special interests are working to roll back the Clean Water Act. We have come a long way since Cleveland’s burning Cuyahoga River became a national symbol of our country’s water-quality problems. Americans continue to rank pollution of drinking water as their top environmental concern, and now is not the time abandon our commitment to drinkable, swimmable and fishable waters. Unless Congress acts, the drinking water protection for 110 million Americans — who get their water from sources affected by the court decisions — remains murky. We can act now to protect those waters, and the great outdoors here in the upper Midwest, by writing those protections back into law, and making sure the Clean Water Act is interpreted as it was intended to be.