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Background
Summer's Here -- Time to Protect Clean Water
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Summer is here and that means time spent swimming at the lake, fishing in creeks and streams, or boating down the river. Keeping our nation’s waters clean and healthy guarantees that we all have the chance to enjoy summer fun. For over 35 years, the Clean Water Act has protected our rivers, lakes, streams and wetlands from pollution and destruction. But an organized attempt by developers and polluters to weaken the Clean Water Act has created confusion over what waters should be protected. Right now, Congress has the opportunity to guarantee protections for all waters of the United States. The Clean Water Restoration Act is the most important clean water legislation in the last 35 years. This bill says that Congress intended all waters should be protected against pollution and destruction. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that approximately 20 million acres of wetlands and 60% of America's streams nationwide are the waters now most at risk of losing Clean Water Act protection. We recently ran radio ads in Bangor, ME, Champaign, IL, and Oshkosh, WI and ads in local newspapers in Champaign and Bangor asking people to contact their local elected officials and tell them to support the Clean Water Restoration Act. If you live in these areas, call your elected officials today and tell them to support the Clean Water Restoration Act. If you don't live in these districts, you can still help -- tell your elected officials to support the Clean Water Restoration Act today! Recently conducted public opinion surveys polling voters in rural, agriculturally-dependent Congressional districts revealed some surprising facts about these voters' support for strong actions from the federal government to protect clean water. Of the 900 rural voters polled, more than half (55%) in each district agreed that government has not gone far enough with laws to protect the environment and keep our water free from pollution. Farmers were as likely as their non-farming neighbors to agree with this statement. A memorandum of the polling results is available here. The following links provide the specific data for each district: Additionally, two-thirds of voters are very concerned about pollution of drinking water, and more than half say they are concerned about pollution of lakes, rivers and streams. The rural voters polled said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who voted to have the Clean Water Act protect all bodies of water from pollution. Depending on the district, between 64 percent to 73 percent of voters said they would be either more likely or much more likely to vote for a candidate who supported such clean water legislation. Conducted for Earthjustice by Bellwether Research & Consulting, the poll surveyed 300 randomly selected rural voters in each of three congressional districts: Illinois-15th; Ohio-18th; and Tennessee-4th. The poll was conducted in mid-December, and those polled were selected in each congressional district from a universe of households defined as "rural" based on the Census Tract of that address. Each survey has a + 5.6% margin of error. "Given the consistency of these findings in these three separate districts, there is a strong likelihood that rural voters would have similar attitudes in similar districts," said Chris Matthews, President of Bellwether Research & Consulting. Earthjustice commissioned the poll to be conducted in rural, predominantly agricultural districts to counter arguments from opponents of the federal Clean Water Act that are trying to create the impression that rural and farming voters don't want Congress to legislate protection for all waters of the United States. Congress is now considering a bill called the Clean Water Restoration Act that will guarantee protections for all waters. More information about the Clean Water Restoration Act (H.R. 2421/S. 1870) is available here.
