Congress considers restoring safeguards on nation’s streams and wetlands

by Eric Kroh
Apr 24, 2008

WASHINGTON – Strong bipartisan support could restore federal environmental protection for small streams and wetlands that supply some water to more than 1.6 million people in Illinois alone.

The Clean Water Restoration Act is being examined by House and Senate committees but, though the bill has support from both sides of the aisle, similar bills have died in previous sessions of congress.

The bill would return the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act to where it was before the Supreme Court restricted it in decisions over the past several years. One case involved water in a gravel pit in northern Cook County that had become a wildlife habitat.

Support for the restoration act on Capitol Hill includes 175 co-sponsors of the bill, introduced in the House by James Oberstar, a Republican from Minnesota. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, spoke in support of the bill during a recent hearing.

”With an ever-expanding population and the potentially devastating impacts of global warming on our water supply, now is not the time to be weakening the Clean Water Act,” Boxer said.

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Story URL: http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=87155
Story Retrieval Date: 4/29/2008 2:51:16 PM CST