Good Morning Gina,
Today I actually hit a speedbump in my thinking on a
Cleaner Hudson. So I asked Beth!
She said “you know, with so many people so divided
about so many things, why don’t you write about something everyone
agrees on, which is a theme in your letters to Gina?”
We know everyone agrees on how important
clean water is. Even the national Democratic and Republican platforms
included that “pledge of allegiance!”
So, in my research about “why is clean water so
important?” I found this:
“Water is the lifeblood of
healthy people and healthy economies. We have a duty to protect it. That’s
why EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are finalizing a Clean Water Rule
later this spring to protect critical streams and wetlands that are currently
vulnerable to pollution and destruction. On April 3 we sent the draft rule to
the Office of Management and Budget for interagency review. Since it’s not
final yet, we can’t speak to every detail. But the spirit of this rule boils
down to three facts:
“First, people depend on clean water: one in three Americans get their
drinking water from streams currently lacking clear protection.
“Second, our economy depends
on clean water: manufacturing, farming,
ranching, tourism, recreation, and other major economic sectors need clean
water to function and flourish.
“Third, our cherished way of
life depends on clean water: healthy
ecosystems support precious wildlife habitat and pristine places to hunt, fish,
boat, and swim.
 |
| Rockwell Falls, in Hadley, NY, the narrowest point of the Hudson River, just north of Ft Edward |
“A year ago, our agencies
released the draft Clean Water Rule. Since then, we’ve held more than 400
meetings across the country and received more than one million public comments
from farmers, manufacturers, business owners, hunters and anglers, and others.
The input helped us understand the genuine concerns and interests of a wide
range of stakeholders and think through options to address them. In the final
rule, people will see that we made changes based on those comments, consistent
with the law and the science. We’ve worked hard to reach a final version that
works for everyone – while protecting clean water.”
I was delighted to see that you wrote this,
along with Assistant Secretary of the Army Jo-Ellen Darcy, on April 6, 2015
(although the highlights are my own).
Let’s keep up the hard work and not lose an action-focus
view on reducing PCBs in “America’s River!”
