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Seven
years have passed since the U.S. Supreme Court issued the infamous SWANNC
decision and removed federal protections for isolated wetlands and
headwater streams. Wisconsin Wetlands Association (WWA) is participating in
a nationwide campaign to urge congress to pass the Clean Water Restoration
Act (CWRA). The CWRA reinstates the federal government's authority to
require developers to modify their projects to avoid and minimize impacts
to isolated wetlands and headwater streams.
Several Wisconsin legislators will figure prominently in this
debate (see below). With hearings scheduled in the House and Senate in the
next two weeks, it's critical for Wisconsin
residents to contact their Congressional Representatives and ask them to
support this important bill. Please read on for information about the
CWRA and how you can help advance this important campaign.
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Does Your
Representative Support the CWRA?
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 Wisconsin's Senator Russ Feingold introduced the CWRA
in the Senate and Senator Herb Kohl has signed on as a co-sponsor.
Representatives Tammy Baldwin, Steve Kagen,
Ron Kind, and Gwen Moore have all co-sponsored the House
version of the bill. These leaders will be under intense pressure to
change or modify their positions, so please contact them to thank them
for their leadership and support.
Representatives Obey, Petri, Ryan, and
Sensenbrenner have not yet
agreed to co-sponsor the bill and need more information and encouragement
from their constituents about why passage of the CWRA is important for
Wisconsin (see talking points below).
For the greatest impact, voice your
opinions by phone. Call the
Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 to be connected to your
Representative's office and the offices of Senators Feingold & Kohl.
To contact Wisconsin Congressional
leaders by e-mail, click on the following links: Senator
Russ Feingold / Senator
Herb Kohl / Representative
Tammy Baldwin / Representative
Steve Kagen / Representative
Ron Kind / Representative
Gwen Moore / Representative
Dave Obey / Representative
Tom Petri / Representative
Paul Ryan / Representative
Jim Sensenbrenner
Photo: Creative Commons
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Key Players
for April 2008 hearings
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Representatives Petri and Kagen both serve on the House Transportation &
Infrastructure Committee, the committee
hosting the April 16 hearings. In addition to needing their support for
the bill, we need them to attend the hearing and speak in support of the
legislation. Calls and letters to their offices should include the
messages and questions below.
Representative Kagen: Thank him for his co-sponsorship of the CWRA.
Encourage him to please attend the Transportation & Infrastructure
Committee hearing on April 16 and to speak on behalf of the CWRA. Tell
him that you understand it will be a long day and that he's not likely to
attend the entire hearing, but that you hope he'll choose to make an
opening statement and to return later in the day to ask questions of one
or more of the panels.
Representative Petri: Ask him his current position on the bill and
encourage him to become a co-sponsor. Ask him if he plans to attend the
important Transportation & Infrastructure Committee hearing on April
16 and encourage him to do so. Tell him why you support the CWRA (see
talking points below) and that you hope he'll: 1) choose to make an
opening statement in support of the CWRA at the beginning of the hearing,
and 2) to return later in the day to ask questions of one or more of the
panels.
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Talking
Points: Why Wisconsin's
Congressional Leaders Should Support the CWRA
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 We encourage you
to use any or all of the following talking points when you contact your
legislators to encourage them to support (or thank them for supporting)
the CWRA. Additional talking points and campaign information will be
posted on Wisconsin Wetlands Association's website
in the coming weeks.
Talking
points:
- Lakes, rivers, streams
and wetlands are the heart of Wisconsin.
Wetlands protect rivers and lakes from pollution and provide food,
clean drinking water, flood protection, fish and wildlife habitat,
recreational opportunities and aesthetic beauty for Wisconsin residents and visitors.
- 75% of all Wisconsin wildlife species rely on wetlands
for some portion of their life cycle. Total wildlife-related
recreation expenditures in the state exceeded $3.9 billion annually.
- In 2001, Wisconsin's isolated wetlands protection law
(Act 6) passed unanimously in both houses of the Wisconsin
legislature. The CWRA deserves unanimous bipartisan support from Wisconsin's
Congressional Representatives too.
- The CWRA will level the
regulatory playing field and will prevent Wisconsin
and other Great Lakes states from
weakening wetland and waterway protections as a tool to recruit new
businesses.
- Delegating
responsibility for wetland protection to the states is not an
effective national policy. Though Wisconsin
has strong isolated wetlands protections, many states in the Mississippi
flyway and elsewhere do not. Wetland destruction other places in the
Mississippi
basin negatively impact waterfowl populations in our state.
- The CWRA will reduce
wetland permitting confusion, conflict and delays. By reducing
confusion over what types of wetlands are regulated by which
agencies, the CWRA will also reduce unauthorized wetland fill and
costly construction delays.
- The CWRA will NOT
undermine the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources' authority
to implement and enforce protections for isolated wetlands and
streams, and will not reduce local governments' influence on
requests to fill wetlands to address public safety concerns.
- The CWRA will not
expand wetland and waterway protections beyond what they were in
2001.
- The CWRA will not
impose new restrictions on existing agricultural activities. It
includes careful clauses to preserve existing exemptions for ongoing
agricultural and silvicultural activities.
More
information on the CWRA, including updates on the status of the hearings,
recent testimony, opinion pieces released by groups who support and
oppose the bill, and links to media coverage can be found on the Clean
Water Network's website.
WWA
members who live outside of Wisconsin can contact their elected officials
by calling the Capitol Switchboard (202-224-3121) or by filling out the
official constituent contact form posted on their websites (Find your Senator
or Representative).
Photo: Dean Dimitri Krapf
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What is the
Clean Water Restoration Act?
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Historically, the Clean Water Act
regulated construction in, and discharges of pollutants to, all
wetlands and waterways in the nation. Since 2001 that authority has been
repeatedly narrowed, removing federal Clean Water Act protection from on
more than 1 million acres of Wisconsin wetlands, nearly 50% of all Wisconsin streams, and numerous lakes.
The Clean Water Restoration Act (CWRA)
reinstates these protections by reiterating what Congress intended when
it passed the Clean Water Act over 30 years ago: that all waters of the United States
should be protected from pollution and destruction. The CWRA is known as
H.R. 2421 in the House of Representatives and S.1870 in the Senate.
Specifically, the Clean Water
Restoration Act will:
- Adopt a statutory definition of "waters of
the United States"
based on the longstanding definition in EPA and Army Corps of
Engineers regulations.
- Delete the word "navigable" from the
Act to clarify that the Clean Water Act is principally intended to
protect the nation's waters from pollution rather than just maintain
navigability.
- Provide the basis for Congressional assertion
of constitutional authority over the nation's waters, as defined in
the Act, including so-called "isolated" waters, headwater
streams, small rivers, ponds, lakes and wetlands.
The next two weeks is a critical time
period for the CWRA. Congress has scheduled two hearings (April 9, 2008
in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and April 16, 2008
in the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee) to discuss
the merits of the Act. These are the first congressional hearings that
will focus solely on the Clean Water Restoration Act.
Congress will hear testimony from both
supporters and opponents of the bill. Opponents include well funded and
well organized interest groups, including those representing home
builders, the mining and oil industries, major manufacturers, the
National Farm Bureau, and others.
See the other sections of this alert for
details on which Wisconsin elected
officials currently support the CWRA, which ones we still need to
convince, how to contact them, and suggested talking points.
Excerpts of this article were modified
from materials provided by Clean
Water Network.
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