Strong Clean Water Act Funding Makes Good Economic, Environmental Sense
Press Room
Press Release
For Immediate Release
January 19, 2007
For more information contact:
Tim Zink, (202) 654-4625
Strong Clean Water Act Funding Makes Good Economic, Environmental Sense
Hunting, fishing and conservation organizations ask House committee to make major investment in clean water, wetlands
WASHINGTON - The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) today urged the members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to include substantial funding for wetlands and fish habitat restoration in the Clean Water Funding legislation slated for consideration in the near future.
“Wetlands are nature’s water coolers, and we’re a thirsty country,” said Matthew B. Connolly Jr., TRCP President and CEO. “Our fish and wildlife need properly functioning wetlands, too. We simply cannot have enough of them.”
A robust national investment in wetlands restoration represents one of the most cost-effective measures we can take to improve water quality. America is losing more than 80,000 acres of wetlands each year. By working to better conserve the intact wetlands that remain, we can prevent untold levels of future spending on things like costly water treatment systems and controls for runoff and sediment.
Since 1972, the stated objective of the Clean Water Act has been to have fishable and swimmable waters. Investments in fish habitat restoration and the control of non-point sources of pollution will need to be clean water funding priorities in order to meet the act’s basic objectives.
“Wetlands losses are compromising water quality in every state and we need to immediately stem these losses,” said Connolly.
Joined by several of its leading partner organizations, the TRCP asks that the State Wetlands Grant Program and the Fisheries Habitat Protection, Restoration and Enhancement Grants, which are included in the bipartisan Clean Water Trust Act of 2005, be included in the Clean Water Funding legislation being developed by the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
“These programs represent investments that make sense both economically and environmentally,” continued Connolly. “They are the types of investments America needs to make.”
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The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership is a coalition of leading conservation organizations and grassroots partners working together to conserve fish and wildlife and their habitat, increase funding for conservation and management, and expand access to places to hunt and fish.
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