Mike Arcuri Supports Clean Water Restoration Act
It’s impossible to live here in Trumansburg and the town of Ulysses and not think about water. Our most contentious political issue over the last couple of years has been the attempt to establish a new water district. With Cayuga Lake and our creeks running down to the lake, water defines our landscape, and the effort to find clean water and protect it determines where we live.
How is our new representative in Congress, Democrat Michael Arcuri, elected just over one year ago, doing on the water issue? I’m happy to report that he is among those in the House of Representatives who have co-sponsored a worthwhile bill, the Clean Water Restoration Act of 2007.
When the Clean Water Act was passed years ago, it applied to all wetlands and waterways in the United States. Recently, however, right wing Supreme Court justices appointed by George W. Bush ruled that the Clean Water Act should not apply to some wetlands and streams, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation. With this Supreme Court ruling, the integrity of water supplies in many parts of the country was put back in jeopardy.
The Clean Water Restoration Act is designed to correct for the problem created by this ruling. The legislation ensures that all America’s natural sources of water are protected, as the Clean Water Act intended to protect them. This legislation is not an expansion of the authority of the Clean Water Act, just a correction of a right wing attempt to cripple the Clean Water Act.
It’s good news that Congressman Arcuri’s name is on the list of co-sponsors of H.R. 2421, the House version of the Clean Water Restoration Act. One of our U.S. senators, Charles Schumer, has joined Mike Arcuri in consponsoring the bill (labelled S.1870 in the U.S. Senate).
Please call Representative Arcuri at (315) 252-2777 and Senator Schumer at (607) 772-6792 and express your thanks for their positive action on this issue.
Our other U.S. senator, Hillary Clinton, has not joined Arcuri and Schumer to protect the integrity of America’s water resources. She has not co-sponsored the Clean Water Restoration Act. As our senator, but also as a presidential candidate in 2008, Hillary Clinton ought to be leading on this issue, not letting it fall by the wayside.
Please call Senator Clinton and let her know that you want to see her name on the list of co-sponsors for the Clean Water Restoration Act. The phone number at her Syracuse office is (315) 448-0470.
[...] and Dennis Kucinich have come out in support of the Clean Water Restoration Act. Local writers are clamoring for other presidential candidates to do so as well. The National Wildlife Federation is leading an activist campaign to pressure [...]
I heard that Bush promised to veto this, but that it looked like we should have overrides in both houses. When does this get tested?
That, I don’t know. It’s getting pretty late for this year.
Gee
It’s too bad nobody wants clean water in Trumansburg. All the individual solutions of family filtering unots are very costly and very ecologically detrimental sinec they are so inefficient compared to municipal water. Consider Trains for transportation. They would solve the current and future environmental problems associated with poor public policy and energy usage. Perhaps railroads and energy use is a comparable issue to municipal vs individual water systems. These systems are about as practical as everyone driving their own cars for every little errand that needs to be done. Then we fight for the closest parking place at the Gym in order to prevent and exercise from happening inadvertently by walking a distance to the exercise station. Egad exercise in the normal course of daily events?
How un American!
So individual water systems are very wasteful when RO systems are used and very expensive to operate for filtering as compared to municipal water. So why should anyone care in this community about a national clean water act supported or not by Arcuri.
Is this a joke?