In 2002, Bush administration issued a rulemaking that effectively removed Clean Water Act protection, permitting mining companies to fill our nation's waterways with the toxin-laden waste material.
Congress enacted the Clean Water Act in 1972, which allowed the filling of waterways for constructive purposes, such as dams or levees. But protected waterways from being used as waste disposal sites.
On June 22, 2009, the Supreme Court ruled that the Clean Water Act permits a mining company to pump hundreds of thousands of gallons per day of toxic wastewater slurry into an Alaskan lake, killing its fish and aquatic life.
The passage of Clean Water Protection Act, H.R. 1310 will ensure lakes, rivers, streams and wetlands are not destroyed by industrial waste dumping by passing. We must ensure that we won't have another catastrophe like the one occurring right now in Alaska.
