Webinar takes on Clean Water Act rollbacks, invasive species, SS Badger

Current attempts to roll back federal Clean Water Act protections are a call to action as they could bring about “serious damage” to the Great Lakes, said experts during an Alliance webinar Thursday.

“We’re very concerned about the attempt to roll back some of the provisions that protect the Great Lakes,” said Joel Brammeier, Alliance President and CEO.

The efforts by some in Congress to weaken the Clean Water Act, which celebrates its 40th anniversary next year, was at the center of the hour-long webinar that attracted 100 participants via phone.

Also discussed: congressional attempts to weaken the federal program addressing the spread of invasive species via ships’ ballast water; and to bypass the act to allow the ongoing discharge of coal ash into Lake Michigan by the S.S. Badger car ferry.

See Webinar >

Clean water expert Todd Ambs, president of River Network and former water administrator for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, joined Brammeier on the call, as did Alliance Water Quality Manager Lyman Welch.

“It is important to send the message that this is a foundational law to protect the Great Lakes,” said Brammeier. “To weaken it would do some serious damage to the waters of the Great Lakes.”

Ambs called the Clean Water Act an imperfect tool that has nonetheless paved the way for significant progress in the Great Lakes.

Fueled by the now-infamous photo of the Cuyahoga River in flames, the act rode a wave of bipartisan support in Congress before it was passed into law in 1972, overriding President Nixon’s veto. Ambs said the act today is more than halfway to its goal of making the nation’s water fishable, drinkable and swimmable, with about 65 percent of U.S. waters meeting that standard.

Beyond that, Ambs attributed to the act significant end-of-the-pipe improvements to pollution discharges, and noted the Great Lakes are home to the strongest phosphorus regulations in the country. “This means billions of pounds of phosphorus have been prohibited from going into the Great Lakes,” he said.

The waters of the United States belong to everyone, Ambs said, adding “I really do look at the Clean Water Act as an owners’ manual.”

See webinar via WebEx >

Posted 12-8-11