On April 7, more than 200 people came to hear Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy speak about the agency’s plan to restore Clean Water Act protections to more than half of Minnesota’s streams. Organized by Environment Minnesota and Friends of the Mississippi River, that night’s forum at the
University of Minnesota St. Paul Student Center featured Rep. Betty McCollum and staff from three other congressional offices as well as farmers, business owners and experts who echoed support for the EPA clean water rule.
The drinking water for 970,000 Minnesotans and 117 million Americans in total has been left vulnerable to pollution by loopholes in the Clean Water Act for the past decade. The EPA clean water rule would close these loopholes and restore protections to one in three Americans’ drinking water.
Polluting interests such as corporate agribusiness, developers and the oil and gas industry have been fighting to stop the clean water rule, and just last month their allies in Congress pushed a dirty water amendment through in the federal budget resolution.
Clean water advocates expressed their concern that Sen. Amy Klobuchar had voted in favor of the Barrasso budget resolution amendment, which aims to prevent the EPA proposal from moving forward. Attendees signed postcards to Klobuchar expressing their disappointment with her recent vote and asking her to support the rule in the future. I urge everyone to ask Klobuchar to stand up for our waters and show her support for the clean water rule.
