Dear Water Activists:

Senators Ask President Bush to Enforce the Clean Water Act

Thanks to your hard work, 36 Senators signed on to letters last week that
were sent to President Bush asking him to revoke the January 2003 Policy
Directive stripping Clean Water Act protections from thousands of miles of
streams, millions of acres of wetland, and many other types of waters. A
Republican letter was circulated by Sen. Lincoln Chaffee (RI) and a
Democrat letter was circulated by Sen. Russ Feingold (WI). This bi-partisan
effort sends a strong message to the administration that Clean Water Act
protections are incredibly important to maintaining and improving water
quality for all waters of the United States and the Act must be enforced to
the full extent of the law.

Thank you very much for all of the time and effort you spent to get your
Senator to take this positive action to protect America's waters -- even if
in the end your Senator(s) didn't sign their party's letter.  Please
remember to thank your Senator(s) who signed their party's letter.  Please
see the list of Senators who signed the letters below.  For copies of the
letter, contact Navis Bermudez at [log in to unmask]

MORE NEWS:

New Report Provides Evidence Showing how the Anti-Clean Water Policy is
Harming the Nation's Waters.

On Thursday, August 12, Sierra Club, NWF, NRDC and Earthjustice released a
report detailing how the Bush administration is exposing America's waters
to harm.  The Bush administration's Policy Directive is being used by the
Army Corps of Engineers to deny Clean Water Act protections for waters of
the United States. Case studies in the report indicate that Corps districts
around the country are failing to assert protections over waters ranging
from an 86-acre lake to a 150-mile-long river, to a 4000-acre tract of
wetlands and a 70-mile-long canal-leaving these waters vulnerable to
pollution and destruction.

Please feel free to use or mention this report in any actions you plan to
take to defend the Clean Water Act.  We hope the report will be helpful to
you in these efforts.

To obtain the report visit
http://www.sierraclub.org/cleanwater/recklessabandon/ or contact Navis
Bermudez at [log in to unmask]

____________________________________________________________________________
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Senators who signed letters to the President:

Republicans: Lincoln Chafee (RI), Olympia Snowe (ME), Susan Collins (ME),
Arlen Specter (PA)

Democrats and Independent Jim Jeffords (VT): Russell Feingold (WI), Patrick
Leahy (VT), Frank Lautenberg (NJ), Chuck Schumer (NY), Herb Kohl (WI), Bill
Nelson (FL), Fritz Hollings (SC), Tom Harkin (IA), Jack Reed (RI),
Christopher Dodd (CT), Joe Lieberman (CT), John Edwards (NC), Tom Carper
(DE), Ron Wyden (OR), Dick Durbin (IL), Maria Cantwell (WA), Mark Dayton
(MN), Patty Murray (WA), Bob Graham (FL), Barbara Mikulski (MD), Joe Biden
(DE), Paul Sarbanes (MD), Mark Pryor (AR), Blanche Lincoln (AR), John Kerry
(MA), Ted Kennedy (MA), Hillary Rodham-Clinton (NY), Barbara Boxer (CA),
Diane Feinstein (CA), Daniel Akaka (HI), Jon Corzine (NJ)

_______________________________
Navis Bermudez
Washington Representative
Clean Water/CAFO Campaign
Environmental Quality Program
202.675.2392

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