THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 31, 1995 TAG: 9505270005
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
On May 16, Virginia Congressmen Pickett, Sisisky, Bateman, Bliley and Goodlatte, as well as a majority of members in the House of Representatives, voted to burn back the clock 23 years on environmental protection. They approved the House version of a new Clean Water Act (H.R. 961), which repeals major portions of the Clean Water Act of 1972. If it is approved in the Senate, and signed into law by President Clinton, 23 years of progess in cleaning up our nation's waterways will be lost. The vote by these congressmen is a direct vote aginst the ocean, the Chesapeake Bay and all of Virginia's waters.
Since the adoption of the Clean Water Act, we have made major progress in cleaning up our rivers, lakes and coastal waters. We have provided over $70 billion to state and local governments for sewage treatment and reduced the rate of wetlands decline from ill-advised development.
Without the Clean Water Act, the Potomac River would be a sewage dump and the James River would be filled with Kepone.
But we still have a long way to go. More than one-half of the wetlands in the continental United States have been lost - 42 percent in Virginia; more than one-third of our rivers, lakes and estuaries are unfit for swimming and fishing; our commercial and reacreational fisheries are disappearing; the consumption of fish in 46 states was restricted last year due to toxic pollution. People cannot safely eat fish caught in eight areas in Virginia already because fish are contaminated with mercury, PCB's and dioxin; and nationally, over 10,000 beaches were closed during the past five years due to pollution.
Nevertheless, these congressmen and the other members of Congress who voted to repeal the Clean Water Act apparently beleive our waters are too clean. They voted to approve a bill that only polluters could love. Polluters; they wrote it.
Special interests wrote waivers in this bill for virtually every activity that pollutes our waters: pre-treatment waivers for toxic discharges into public sewage treatment plants; secondary sewage treatment waivers for sewage discharged directly into ocean waters; repeal of permit requirements for polluted stormwater discharged by developers and cities; and exclusions for development in over 50 percent of our remaining wetlands. They even made sure that they would never be held accountable for the greatest source of water pollution today, polluted runoff (nonpoint source pollution).
Congressmen Pickett, Sisisky, Bateman, Bliley and Goodlatt will not have to deal with the devastation that this bill will cause to Virginia's waters. Senators Warner and Robb should vote to reject the special-interest legislation adopted in the House and cast their votes for what is truly special in Virginia - clean water.
KATHRYN J. O'HARA
LAUREL A. HALPERIN
Atlantic Regional Office
Center for Marine Conservation
Hampton, May 18, 1995 by CNB