Victory for Ducks - Clean Water Act provisions on its way to being restored

Press release from the National Wildlife Federation:

Senate Moves to Restore Strong Protections for America’s Waters

“America’s waters are closer to again having the comprehensive Clean Water Act protections that Congress intended”

Washington, DC (June 18, 2009) – The National Wildlife Federation today praised Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and the members of the Environment and Public Works Committee who voted today to restore Clean Water Act protections for all of the nation’s lakes, streams and wetlands. The Committee voted 12 to 7 to advance an amended S. 787, the Clean Water Restoration Act to the full Senate.

“America’s waters are closer to again having the comprehensive Clean Water Act protections that Congress intended,” said Jan Goldman-Carter, Wetlands and Water Resources Counsel, National Wildlife Federation. “This bill restores critical protections for our nation’s increasingly-precious fresh water resources while respecting private property rights and continuing longstanding Clean Water Act exemptions for agriculture and forestry.”

The Clean Water Restoration Act would clarify Congress’ intent to extend Clean Water Act protections to all the nation’s wetlands, streams and other waters. Supreme Court decisions in 2001 (SWANCC v. Army Corps of Engineers) and 2006 (Rapanos v. United States) threatened Clean Water Act protections for thousands of miles of streams and rivers and millions of acres of wetlands. These legal decisions and federal agency guidance to implement them have created confusion and uncertainty nationwide, undermining efforts to enforce the Clean Water Act. This has left millions of acres of waters vulnerable to pollution and destruction, and has creating long delays in obtaining permits for work in wetlands and other waters due to confusion over the scope of the Act’s protections.

Senators Baucus (D-MT), Klobuchar (D-MN) and Boxer clarified through an amendment to the bill that broad, existing Clean Water Act exemptions for agriculture and forestry were to be retained. While other amendments to create new and broader exemptions for agricultural pollution were offered, none were accepted by the committee.

“The bill, as amended today, represents a balanced approach to ensuring the integrity of the nation’s waters into the future,” said Jim Murphy, Wetlands and Water Resources Counsel, National Wildlife Federation.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 59 percent of stream miles in the continental U.S. are intermittent or ephemeral and many of these have been losing Clean Water Act protection since 2006. These streams provide important drinking water, flood control, and aquatic habitat functions. An estimated 20 million acres of wetlands – or 20 percent of all remaining wetlands in the lower 48 states – are already losing Clean Water Act protection, and many more are at risk. EPA estimates that more than 111 million Americans get their drinking water from public supplies fed in whole or in part by intermittent or ephemeral streams vulnerable to pollution under these decisions.

“Today was the first step for this important bill. Now the full Senate and the House of Representatives need to finish the job and ensure the health of our nation’s wetlands, lakes and streams for current and future generations of both wildlife and people,” said Goldman-Carter.

The National Wildlife Federation inspires Americans to protect wildlife for our children’s future.

Immediate Release: June 18, 2009

Contacts:
Aileo Weinmann, communications manager, 202-797-6801, weinmanna@nwf.org

Jan Goldman-Carter, wetlands & water resources counsel, goldmancarterj@nwf.org,
202-797-6894

Jim Murphy, wetlands and water resources counsel, 802-552-4325, jmurphy@nwf.org

Cheney coming to Manchester??

From the Rutland Herald:

Feb 6, 2009

Vermont museum mum on Cheney invite

By DENNIS JENSEN The Rutland Herald

Published reports that former Vice President Dick Cheney will be the guest of honor at the Manchester-based American Museum of Fly Fishing's annual dinner at the New York Angler's Club on March 5 has the organization re-examining that decision.

While Catherine Comar, the executive director of the museum, would not confirm or deny reports that Cheney was the guest of honor, reports of his upcoming appearance have appeared on the Web sites of several outdoor writers.

"We're not discussing this," Comar said.

Asked if the published reports were in error and if Cheney was not invited to speak, Comar said, "We'll contact you when we're ready to discuss the issue. The board (of directors) is having meetings. When we have any information to offer, we'll contact you."

Richard Tisch of Pound Ridge, N.Y., a member of the board of trustees for the museum, said he would not discuss the Cheney issue, but did acknowledge that the museum's board of directors would be addressing the issue in an upcoming meeting.

"We've got no comment at this time," he said. But Tisch said the board "will be meeting shortly, in the next week or two" to discuss the Cheney matter.

The museum has come under some criticism by several outdoor writers and others who maintain that Cheney is a poor choice to be honored by the museum, given, they said, his record on the environment.

Ted Williams, the conservation editor for Fly Rod & Reel magazine, apparently broke the Cheney story about a month ago on a blog he writes for that publication.

Williams explained his opposition to Cheney in a column written for High Country News, in Paonia, Colo.

"Can there be a better choice than traditional practitioner Dick Cheney the man who trashed the Endangered Species Act, who virtually canceled the Clean Air and Clean Waters acts, who suppressed science, who ruined the lives of dedicated resource professionals and who ran Christine Todd Whitman out of the EPA?"

The museum's Web site makes no mention that Cheney will be the guest speaker at its annual dinner. Tickets for the dinner are $175 a person.

Steve Wright of Craftsbury, an avid fly fisherman and a former commissioner of the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, said he was surprised the museum would select a public figure as controversial as Cheney.

"I'm disappointed with the museum," he said. "I think it's sad. I wish the museum could have a higher standard for its fundraising practices."

Wright said he has always viewed the museum "as a conservation organization, but Dick Cheney is the archenemy of the habitat that supports cold water fisheries resources and he's proven that over eight years in office."

Wright said he suspected the museum didn't anticipate the kind of reaction it would receive when word got out about Cheney speaking at the annual dinner and said that might explain why the museum's board is having second thoughts about featuring him.

"The way these things happen is that some board member wants to play a big card just to show he can get someone from the inner circle to appear before his organization," Wright said.

Rep. David Deen, D-Windham, a fishing guide, said he didn't see a problem with inviting Cheney to speak.

"If having Dick Cheney will help the fly fishing museum carry out their mission, to raise some money to carry out their goals, then fine," he said. "The sport (of fly fishing) is not political; never has been."

Deen said that, as a lifelong Democrat, he "had some problems" with former President George W. Bush, but noted that Bush signed a number of executive orders that went a long way toward protecting ocean fisheries.

When Cheney was vice president, the code name given to him by the Secret Service was "Angler."

dennis.jensen@rutlandherald.com