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Preserving Ohio’s Waters

What's New

Too many of Ohio’s waterways – including Lake Erie – suffer from pollution that comes from mining, development and other polluting activities. To make matters worse, the Bush administration wants to stop enforcing the clean water laws for many of America’s important waterways. Ohio’s waterways are too important for Ohioans and the natural habitat that they support. That’s why we’re working to get a bill passed in Congress that would make sure clean water laws are enforced and all of Ohio’s waterways preserved.

How You Can Help

Please take a minute to call your member of Congress and ask him or her to support legislation that will enforce the Clean Water Act.

Background

Since the 1970s when Lake Erie was declared a dead industrial wasteland and the Cuyahoga River was in flames, we have made tremendous progress to clean up Ohio’s waterways. In large part, this improvement came because of the enactment of the Clean Water Act in the late ‘70s by Congress which set strong pollution control standards for America’s waterways.

Unfortunately, in 2005 the Bush administration set out to implement a policy that would weaken the Clean Water Act by excluding many of America’s smaller waterways from pollution protection standards. Because Ohio’s streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands are an intricate web of vital waters that feed into our largest drinking water sources like Lake Erie, it is important to enforce the clean water laws on the books for all of Ohio’s waters.

This summer, Congress will vote on an Environment Ohio backed bill that will make sure all of Ohio’s waters are permanently protected.