For Immediate Release
Contact: Ed Hopkins, 202-675-7908
February 27, 2003                                                

     SIERRA CLUB PRAISES BILL TO RESTORE 
VITAL CLEAN WATER PROTECTIONS
Sierra Club Urges Americans To Ask their Members of Congress to Support
Clean Water Legislation

Washington, DC: The Sierra Club today applauded the introduction of the
"Clean Water Authority Restoration Act of 2003" as an important step for
safeguarding wetlands, small streams and ponds from mining and other
industrial waste dischargers and developers. These waterbodies perform
critically important functions, including storing floodwater, filtering
pollution, replenishing groundwater and providing habitat for birds, fish
and other wildlife.

"This bill clarifies that Congress intends for Clean Water Act protection
to extend to all of the nation's waters, including the so-called isolated
wetlands, streams, ponds and other waterbodies that play such an integral
role in our environment," said Carl Pope, Executive Director.  "Allowing
pollution of a seemingly-isolated stream is likely to result in pollution
of groundwater or downstream waters.  These waters are really not isolated,
and if we want to minimize flooding, have clean water, and provide habitat
to the many species that depend on our waters, we should safeguard all the
nation's waters."

The bill is a response to a Supreme Court ruling in 2001 which dealt a
serious blow to the protection of the nation's waters by narrowing federal
authority to control water pollution in seasonal wetlands and other waters
that lack permanent surface connections to flowing waters, including
prairie potholes, playa lakes, vernal pools, Carolina Bays, and
intermittent and ephemeral streams.

The Supreme Court ruling in Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County
(SWANCC) v. Army Corps of Engineers overturned the federal government's
long-held authority under the Clean Water Act to protect non-navigable,
intrastate, isolated wetlands, streams and other waterbodies from pollution
based on their use by migratory birds. The Court's 5-4 majority opinion
went beyond the ruling by throwing into question whether federal Clean
Water Act protections apply to any wetlands, streams and other waters that
may be considered isolated. In the wake of confusion created by the Court's
opinion, varying interpretations have been applied by the agencies and in
the courts. In some areas of the country, the ruling was seen as setting
aside federal protection of waterbodies that are not immediately adjacent
to rivers and streams used for navigation.

Last month, the Bush Administration issued policy guidance and an Advance
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that go beyond the Supreme Court's decision
in narrowing the scope of the Clean Water Act.  The EPA has estimated that
the guidance could remove Clean Water Act protection from as much as 20
percent, or some 20 million acres, of the nation's wetlands. This estimate
does not even consider the additional extent of streams, ponds and other
waters that industry is likely to claim are "isolated" and unprotected.

The Sierra Club welcomed the Clean Water Authority Restoration Act of 2003
as a critical step to restore broad protection from uncontrolled discharges
of pollution and filling of wetlands. The Sierra Club urges citizens to
call their members of Congress and ask them to support this important bill.

                                    ###



Erin E. Jordahl
Director, Iowa Chapter Sierra Club
3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280
Des Moines, IA 50310
515-277-8868
[log in to unmask]
www.iowa.sierraclub.org

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