For Immediate Release
April 16, 2008
Contact:
Geoff Mullins, (202) 654-4609, gmullins@trcp.org
Coalition Calls for Renewed Protection of Wetlands
WASHINGTON — A coalition of hunting, fishing and conservation organizations today applauded the members of Congress focused on finding a lasting legislative solution to our national wetlands protection crisis. Their efforts will also restore protections to many of the nation's streams that are also at risk of pollution and destruction.
As the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure today continues hearings on the status of the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act, "it must clarify that protections are needed for our nation's wetlands and other waters in the wake of recent Supreme Court decisions that have narrowed the Act's protections," according to Scott Sutherland of Ducks Unlimited. "We strongly urge Congress to pass H.R. 2421/S. 1870, the Clean Water Restoration Act to provide Americans with the decisive statutory language needed to ensure that these resources will not be destroyed and our water will not be polluted."
"The Supreme Court rulings from 2001 and 2006 questioned the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to enforce the Clean Water Act on certain waters and wetlands," said Jan Goldman-Carter of the National Wildlife Federation. "As a result, protection of some of the most environmentally productive and important waters in our nation were weakened considerably. This is of great concern to the millions of America's hunters and anglers."
At risk are a host of important ecological features, such as prairie potholes, playa lakes, and intermittent and ephemeral streams, essential to America's fish and wildlife populations. Indeed, the U.S. has lost some 52 percent of its original wetlands and continues to lose more than 80,000 wetland acres each year.
"For 35 years, there's been an effective means to protect streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands, but now when they are even fewer in number and their importance and societal values are far better understood, our nation must confront the fact that this protection has been weakened by accumulated legal challenges," said Steve Moyer of Trout Unlimited.
"Hunters and anglers know first-hand the importance of wetlands, lakes and streams," said George Cooper of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. "We cannot allow the vital habitat, clean water and flood control functions that natural wetlands provide to continue to deteriorate — to do so would come at great public cost."
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