THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 28, 1995 TAG: 9506280002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
As an environmental scientist, I am appalled by the current attack by the House and the Senate on the laws that protect our environment, health and economy.
The Reauthorization of the Clean Water Act (S.851) might just as well be called ``The Dirty Water Act.'' This bill, introduced in the Senate by Bob Dole and nine others, abandons America's 23-year commitment to clean up our waterways and maintain reasonable water quality in this country. It does so by exempting activities that would normally be monitored by allowing more pollutants to be dumped into the waterways and by scaling back wetlands protection by roughly 75 percent.
It even ignores a brand-new study done by the National Academy of Sciences which found that the current wetlands-regulation system is scientifically sound. Wetlands filter nutrients and other pollutants from water; they retain floodwaters, preventing damage to nearby structures and property; and they provide habitat for wildlife and 70 percent of the seafood species. All of these are economic, not just environmental, values.
The focus of this legislation seems to be compensating the property owner whose land value is adversely affected by environmental laws. But the environment does not recognize property boundaries.
Are developers willing to compensate those whose property they flood by filling wetlands? Will they compensate those whose home foundations subside from being built on unstable wetland soils?
Will industry compensate swimmers, tourists or watermen after they make more waterways unusable?
Will anybody compensate citizens for degraded drinking water? The recent algal blooms in the Norfolk reservoir and the massive taxpayer bailouts to flood victims in the Midwest should make us rethink the logic on this.
This reauthorization bill won't protect private property; it will make property and resources more susceptible to pollution, flooding and other ills brought about by other property owners, mainly developers, industry and big business, who wrote this bill.
With regard to the entertainment industry, Bob Dole recently said, ``We cannot sacrifice our children for corporate profits.'' I agree. Why shouldn't this also apply to our environment?
KATHY STARK
Virginia Beach, June 14, 1995 by CNB