Bill to protect nation's wetlands and stop Clean Water Act rollbacks introduced in House and Senate
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Jim Jeffords (I-VT), and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) have introduced a bill to stop the Bush Administration's attempt to rollback Clean Water Act protections for ephemeral streams, isolated wetlands, and many other categories of waters. The Administration has released an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing large scale exemptions (30-60% of wetlands and streams!!) from all Clean Water Act permitting and conservation requirements.
S 473, the "Clean Water Authority Restoration Act of 2003" would clarify and
reestablish the original intent of the Clean Water Act to protect all of America's waters so that our children, grandchildren, native plants and wildlife will have clean water and healthy wetlands. The accompanying House bill is HR 962, introduced by Rep. James Oberstar (D-MN). You can read the a summary or the full text of S 473 and find other
information at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:s.00473:
ACTION: Your House and Senate representatives need to hear your views on this important issue. To contact them and let them know that you support (or oppose) this bill, go to www.congress.org and enter your ZIP code to access contact information for your elected officials.
Background information and links on wetlands, the Clean Water Act, and the
Advance Notice can be found on the Native Plant Conservation Campaign (NPCC)
website at: http://cnps.org/NPCC/MakeADifference.htm#iso%20wetlands or on
www.vernalpools.org.
(Comments on the Advance Notice are due April 17. A sample comment letter can be found on the NPCC website above.)
Senator Boxer's press release on the bill is pasted below:

Boxer Backs Stronger Protection For Wetlands
Joins House and Senate Colleagues to Introduce Legislation to Stop Administration Attempts to Roll Back Clean Water Act and Allow MorePollution
February 27, 2003
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today joined her colleagues Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), Senator Jim Jeffords (I-VT), Representative John Dingell (D-MI), and Representative Jim Oberstar (D-MN) to introduce the Clean Water Authority Restoration Act of 2003 to ensure all water bodies are fully protected by the Clean Water Act. The Administration is currently attempting to exclude 20 to 30 percent of all water bodies from the Clean Water Act, including many creeks, streams, small ponds, and wetlands.
"The American people expect all our waters to be clean. I intend to ensure that they are clean," said Senator Boxer. "The Administration's roll back of the Clean Water Act would open the way for developers, mining companies, and other polluters to destroy and pollute waters that have been protected for 30 years."
The bill would re-establish federal Clean Water Act protection over what are termed "isolated" wetlands, which are bodies of water not directly connected to a major river or stream. The Bush Administration is using a January 2001 Supreme Court ruling known as the "SWANCC" decision, a narrow ruling that only applies to isolated, non-navigable, intrastate wetlands, as an excuse to exempt these and other water bodies from the protection of the Clean Water Act.
"The Administration is going way beyond the Supreme Court's ruling in an attempt to roll back decades of clean water protection," concluded Senator Boxer. "I am proud to stand with my colleagues to prevent yet another attack on our environment."