Enough already, can't you guys take this political BS somewhere else, like
maybe private email.


"SHRED" wrote in message
newskchd.195730$a85.152246@fed1read04...
Karl-Hugo Weesberg wrote:
If you vote for Kerry, he will ban fishing forever !

So better vote for George W.Bush, because Bush LOVES fishing !

B U S H !


Bush Administration Directs Agencies to Ignore Clean Water Act
http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/mt_archives/000182.php

Using a back-door route to deregulation, the Bush administration has
removed clean water protections for 20 million acres of American
wetlands and tens of thousands of miles of streams, lakes and ponds,
according to documents obtained through the federal Freedom of
Information Act. [1]

The documents, used to produce the report "Reckless Abandon: How the
Bush Administration is Exposing America's Waters to Harm," outline the
consequences of a 2003 federal policy directive that encourages
regulators to routinely avoid enforcing Clean Water Act protections for
American rivers, lakes, streams and wetlands unless otherwise directed.

The report was produced by nonprofit environmental groups Earthjustice,
the National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council
(NRDC) and the Sierra Club. It can be found online at www.cwn.org.

"For the first time in over 30 years of cleaning up our waters, we're
going backwards," said Paul Schwartz, national policy coordinator for
Clean Water Action. Schwartz noted that after the Clean Water Act took
effect in 1972, the percentage of the nation's waters deemed clean
enough for fishing and swimming nearly doubled. But recent state reports
now show those numbers declining, he said.

"The water is getting dirtier, and the Bush administration is leading
one of the most fundamental attacks on a law that has arguably done more
to protect the environment and public health than any other
environmental law," Schwartz told BushGreenwatch.

On January 15, 2003, the Bush administration published guidelines in the
Federal Register directing field staff at the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop issuing
protections for millions of acres of wetlands, streams and other waters
unless they first obtained permission from national headquarters in
Washington, D.C.

The directive further stated that no permission was required to ignore
Clean Water Act protections for these waters and that no records would
be kept of decisions not to invoke the Clean Water Act.

The directive severely narrowed the types of waterways considered
protected under the Clean Water Act to those that were navigable
year-round by commercial vessels, a major departure from every previous
administration's policies since 1972. [2]

At the same time, the administration announced it would take steps to
codify these guidelines through federal rulemaking procedures. It later
backed off the rulemaking process in response to a massive public
outcry. But the guidelines were left in place and have had the same
impact, Schwartz said.

In response, 219 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 33
senators have signed on to letters to President Bush asking him to
rescind the policy directive and restore protections to American waters.
A bill has also been introduced in both the House and Senate that would
make clear that all waters of the U.S. should fall under the protections
of the Clean Water Act. [3]

"The Bush administration's policy is based on the fantasy that if you
let polluters dump sewage, oil and other toxic waste into small wetlands
and streams, it won't ultimately wind up in our lakes, rivers and
coastal waters," said Daniel Rosenberg, an NRDC senior attorney in the
group's August 12 press release.

###

SOURCES:
[1] "Reckless Abandon: How the Bush Administration is Exposing America's
Waters to Harm," CWN, Aug. 12, 2004.
[2] Federal Register, Jan. 15, 2003; EarthJustice, NRDC, NWF, Sierra
Club press release, Aug. 12, 2004.
[3] Clean Water Authority Restoration Act HR 962 and S 473.