Acts in Congress

EARTHKEEPING NEWS
A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY

Volume Three, Number One
September/October 1993

Call to Action:

ENDANGERED SPECIES AND CLEAN WATER ACTS IN CONGRESS

President Clinton and Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt have made considerable progress in strengthening federal regulations to protect our environment. Let us thank them, and turn our attention to Congress now, while bills are still in committee and while senators and representatives want to hear from constituents.

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is being re-authorized in H.R. 2043 (Studds, D-MA; Dingell, D-MI; and Saxton, R-NJ, with 52 co-sponsors). A parallel bill, S.921(Baucus, D-MT and Chafee, R-RI with 14 co-sponsors) has been introduced in the Senate. While the 1973 Act has been successful in protecting and bringing back many species, the extinction rate, according to some estimates, has increased to 50-150 species a day.

The new bills seek to strengthen the Act and to reduce conflicts in its implementation. The goals are to avoid crisis management by encouraging earlier, more comprehensive protection; to help private landowners protect species and still develop their properties; to build stronger partnerships with the states; and to make species recovery plans that minimize social and economic burdens.

In opposition to the House bill, H.R. 2043, are the Endangered Species Act Procedural Reform Amendments of 1993, H.R. 1490 introduced by Reps. Tauzin (D-LA) and Fields (R-TX), in response to the complaints of landowners whose rights as property owners are limited by the Act.

The "Clean Water Act" was last re-authorized in 1987, providing loans for construction of sewage treatment plants and limitations on waste that industries and municipalities could discharge. Many of the law's provisions have expired. A major controversy has been over how extensively to protect wetlands (section 404). Senators. Baucus (D-MT) and Chafee (R-RI) have introduced the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Act of 1993 (S.1114) which is now in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

The bill strengthens the measures to prevent polluted runoff and to regulate point source toxic pollution, and increases the public's right to know what is polluting the surface waters.

Opposition to tightening regulations has come from the anti-environmentalist Wise Use Movement. Now that the Clinton administration has changed the regulations concerning wetlands, there will probably be increased pressure on the committee members to weaken the enforcement provisions of the bill.

In the House, Rep. Minetta (D-CA), chairman of the Committee on Public Works and Transportation, and Rep. Applegate (D-OH), subcommittee chair, are drafting a bill parallel to S. 1114.

Now is the time to write to your Congress persons, supporting their efforts to strengthen environmental protection