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.
