Jane,

1)  I did call Christine.  Left a message.  She hasn't called me back.  If
she does, I'm going to read this email to her.  Verbatim.  Thanks for
sending it.

2) Regarding campaign finance reform, please visit
http://www.publicampaign.org for a look at one approach to cleaning up
campaign finance that is working well in four states.  A modified version of
the model legislation provided on this site has been introduced at least
twice in the Iowa Legislature but has never made it out of committee.

Patrick Bosold

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jane Clark" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, April 05, 2002 12:17 AM
Subject: Why you were asked to call EPA's Christine Whitman about the Fill
Rule


> This is from the Ohio Valley Environmental Council's webpage.
>
> Only Fools Bury Streams!
> Protesting Valley Fills at the Huntington District Headquarters for the
Army
> Corps of Engineers
> April 1, 2002
>
> Janet Fout's Speech
> I would like to thank everyone for being here today and would ask that we
> stand briefly for a moment of silence to honor, Laura Forman, OVEC's
> beloved, feisty organizer who collapsed and died here at a protest she
> organized in December and is undoubtedly with us today in spirit.
>
> Illegal valley fills and the process of mountaintop removal are destroying
> forested mountain ecosystems, streams, and communities in southern West
> Virginia. The illegal permitting of these projects is the direct result of
a
> national and state campaign finance system that is rotten to the core. And
> the rubber-stamping of coal company permits for this destruction is rotten
> at this Huntington District Corps-pun intended.
>
> Our current system of financing political campaigns allows big special
> interests like the coal industry to contribute vast sums of money to top
> decision-makers like President Bush who received millions of dollars from
> the energy sector and our own Senator Robert Byrd in return for political
> favors. These two words come to mind: legalized bribery.
>
> Here's how it works: Coal and energy companies gave Bush more than $4
> million for his 2000 election campaign (not to mention the additional vast
> amounts of cash contributed by these same powerful people and
corporations,
> like Enron, to his inaugural). These same energy moguls also grease the
> political campaigns of other powerful people in Congress-the same Congress
> that approves the Corps' operating budget. And if the Corps or other
> regulatory agencies don't dance to the Administration's tune, they are
> likely to see deep budget cuts. One sure way to make sure laws and
> regulations are not enforced is to starve the agency in charge.
>
> As long as vast sums of money flow into the political campaigns of top
> decision-makers who set budgets for the U.S Army Corps of Engineers, the
> Huntington Division of the Corps is likely to continue to illegally permit
> coal companies to stop the flow of our precious, life-giving waters.
>
> We stand here in protest of a singular, prime example of how money is
> polluting our political system. For years, the U.S. Army Corps has been
> illegally permitting valley fills that smother our precious headwater
> streams and degrade water downstream-in direct violation of the Clean
Water
> Act. For starters, the Huntington Corps issues Nationwide 21 permits,
which
> are supposed to be issued ONLY when the environmental impact is minimal.
>
> Do you call this MINIMAL environmental impact? I sure don't. Entire
aquatic
> and forested mountain ecosystems are being annihilated. Hardly what any
> reasonable person would call this-minimal environmental impact.
>
> Dr. Ben Stout, an aquatic biologist from Wheeling Jesuit University said:
>
> "I can tell you with a straight face, that if you put 200 feet of fill on
> top of a headwater stream, you are going to destroy it. If you take
> headwater streams away from the matrix of streams that feed our large
river
> systems, we are going to end up with highly polluted major systems. This
is
> a very significant ecosystem. These stream ecosystems are not to be thrown
> away.This battle (to save headwater streams) is the battle that you throw
> every thing at. It is so critical that we not allow this (coal) industry
to
> run rampant over our ecosystems. The most vital of all our natural
resources
> is water, and it's more vital than coal."
>
> If ignoring the current environmental law were not bad enough, and because
> it appears that at least one Federal judge believes that the federal Clean
> Water Act should be enforced, the Bush Administration is trying to change
> the rules of the game to help the coal industry to keep burying our
streams
> without public input.
>
> Current law allows the Corps to issue permits for filling streams, BUT NOT
> FOR FILLING STREAMS WITH WASTE MATERIALS! The current law was clearly
meant
> to limit their authority to protect our precious, vital water resources.
> What this proposed rule change would include is changing the definition of
> fill to include coal mining waste. The only way the coal industry can
> continue their destructive valley fills, which increases their profit
> margins but destroys our streams, is by sealing the deal with fat wads of
> campaign cash.
>
> But this is no game-it's a deadly serious ploy-and I do mean deadly. A
rule
> change such as this could endanger all of our nation's water-allowing the
> Corps to issue permits for the dumping of all kinds of industrial waste
into
> our nation's precious waters.
>
> We, who are defending our very landscape, waterways, homes, and
communities
> from destruction from within- from outlaw coal companies and the
regulatory
> agencies they control- must unite and commit ourselves to stopping the
flow
> of special interests campaign dollars into 'our' politicians' political
> campaigns. This tainted campaign cash is not only obliterating West
> Virginia's landscape, but also contributing to an abuse of power, throwing
> political accountability out the window, and destroying democracy in our
> state and nation.
>
> I'll close with a quote from a true American patriot and hero of mine
Doris
> Haddock, fondly known to us as "Granny D", who remarkably at the age of 90
> walked across this great nation to carry the message of campaign finance
> reform to our nation's Capitol. She said:
>
> We have a duty to look after each other, and we invent governments for
this
> purpose. If we lose control of our government, then we lose our ability to
> dispense justice and human kindness. Our first priority today, then, is to
> defeat utterly those forces of greed and corruption that have come between
> us and our self-governance.
>
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> to [log in to unmask]
>

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