The Clean Water Protection Act

The Clean Water Protection Act (H.R. 1310) is a bill in the US House of Representatives which will sharply reduce mountaintop removal coal mining, protect clean drinking water for many of our nation's cities. It will protect the quality of life for Appalachian coalfield residents who face frequent catastrophic flooding and pollution or loss of drinking water as a result of mountaintop removal coal mining.

From the east coast, to the west coast, to the states where it's taking place, Americans want an end to mountaintop removal coal mining. Building on that momentum, and with a friendlier administration and Congress, we have a real chance to pass the Clean Water Protection Act in the 111th Congress. Please contact your representative today and ask them to become a cosponsor!

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171	cosponsors, and counting...

Congress at a Glance

Who are your elected officials?

Find answers to who, where, and why.

Connections to coal

Track campaign contributions from the coal industry to federal officials.

The most effective way to build support for the Clean Water Protection Act is by sending a hand written, supportive letter to your Representative in the House. For the fastest response to your letter, we recommend sending it to a district office.

Although it's less effective, you can also use our free automated dialing tool to call their office, or send them an email with our new webform.

Regardless of how you contact your Representative, here are some important points to make:

The Clean Water Act is meant to protect, not bury, our rivers and streams.
To date, 500 of the world's most ancient mountains have been leveled.
EPA estimates that by 2010 a total of 1.4 millions acres of Appalachia's mountains will have been destroyed.
Across the Appalachian coalfields, more than 2,000 miles of streams are now buried and destroyed by mountaintop removal.
The Clean Water Protection Act is necessary to protect clean drinking water for many of our nation's cities.
The Clean Water Protection Act is also necessary to protect the quality of life and economic security for Appalachian coalfield residents who face frequent catastrophic flooding, pollution, and loss of drinking water as a result of mountaintop removal.

Materials

List of current cosponsors
Clean Water Protection Act bill text (pdf)
Representative Pallone's (lead sponsor) floor statement (pdf)
Dear Colleague letter from lead sponsor (pdf)
New York Times editorial (pdf)
List of newspaper op-ed's against mountaintop removal
coal mining - courtesy of Ohio Citizen Action
Lobbying brochure - full color (pdf) - email us for higher resolution files
Outline of mountaintop removal sites over major US cities

Resources

In-depth

In 1977, The Clean Water Act was enacted by Congress to "restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation's waters." For 25 years, the Clean Water Act (CWA) allowed for the granting of permits to place "fill material" into waters of the United States, provided that the primary purpose of the "filling" was not for waste disposal. As such, the CWA prohibited mountaintop removal operations from using the nation's waterways as waste disposal sites.

That changed in 2002, when the Army Corps of Engineers, under the direction of the Bush administration and without congressional approval, altered its longstanding definition of "fill material" to include mining waste. This change accelerated the devastating practice of mountaintop removal coal mining and the destruction of more than 2,000 miles of Appalachian streams. More than 400,000 acres in West Virginia alone have been leveled, and the EPA Estimates that by the end of the decade a total of 1.4 million acres of Appalachia's mountains and hardwood forests will be destroyed by mountain removal mining, which is an area the size of of Delaware.

In May of 2002, in response to the Army Corps' rule change, The Clean Water Protection Act was introduced into the House of Representatives by Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ) and Christopher Shays (R-CT). Since then, it's enjoyed a groundswell of bi-partisan support.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. of Waterkeeper Alliance put it succinctly:

"The Clean Water Protection Act is the first broad Congressional initiative aimed at reversing the Bush Administration's eight-year effort to savage our national waterways and the popular laws that protect them."

On May 4, 2007, the Clean Water Protection Act was introduced in to the 110th Congress with 55 original cosponsors. Because Representatives from around the country received thousands of letters from people like you, it ended last session with a record 153 bipartisan cosponsors. On March 4th 2009, Congressman Frank Pallone (NJ), Congressman John Yarmuth (KY), and Congressman Dave Reichert (WA) introduced H.R. 1310 with 117 original cosponsors in the 111th Congress; more than twice the number of original cosponsors at the beginning of last session! It currently has 171 cosponsors.

For more information contact Appalachian Voices at 828-262-1500 or www.appvoices.org.

The Clean Water Protection Act - H.R. 1310

171 cosponsors in the 111th Congress (2009 - 2010) as of July 29, 2010

Congress-person

State

District

Congress-person

State

District

Raul M. Grijalva

Betty McCollum

Gabrielle Giffords

Keith Ellison

Doris O. Matsui

Wm. Lacy Clay

Lynn C. Woolsey

Russ Carnahan

George Miller

Emanuel Cleaver

Barbara Lee

G. K. Butterfield

Ellen O. Tauscher

David E. Price

Jerry McNerney

Larry Kissell

Jackie Speier

Heath Shuler

Fortney Pete Stark

Melvin L. Watt

Anna G. Eshoo

Brad Miller

Michael M. Honda

Carol Shea-Porter

Zoe Lofgren

Paul W. Hodes

Sam Farr

Robert E. Andrews

Lois Capps

John H. Adler

Brad Sherman

Christopher H. Smith

Howard L. Berman

Frank Pallone

Adam B. Schiff

Leonard Lance

Henry A. Waxman

Bill Pascrell

Judy Chu

Steven R. Rothman

Diane E. Watson

Donald M. Payne

Lucille Roybal-Allard

Rush D. Holt

Maxine Waters

Albio Sires

Jane Harman

Martin Heinrich

Laura Richardson

Timothy H. Bishop

Grace F. Napolitano

Steve Israel

Linda T. Sanchez

Carolyn McCarthy

Loretta Sanchez

Gary L. Ackerman

Bob Filner

Joseph Crowley

Susan A. Davis

Jerrold Nadler

Diana DeGette

Anthony D. Weiner

Jared Polis

Edolphus Towns

John B. Larson

Yvette D. Clarke

Joe Courtney

Nydia M. Velazquez

Rosa L. DeLauro

Michael E. McMahon

James A. Himes

Carolyn B. Maloney

Christopher S. Murphy

Charles B. Rangel

Eleanor Holmes Norton

Jose E. Serrano

Corrine Brown

Eliot L. Engel

Alan Grayson

Nita M. Lowey

Kathy Castor

John J. Hall

Kendrick B. Meek

Paul D. Tonko

Robert Wexler

Maurice D. Hinchey

Debbie Wasserman Schultz

John M. McHugh

Alcee L. Hastings

William L. Owens

Henry C. "Hank Johnson

Michael A. Arcuri

John Lewis

Brian Higgins

Neil Abercrombie

Louise McIntosh Slaughter

Mazie K. Hirono

Eric J. J. Massa

Bruce L. Braley

Steve Driehaus

Walter Minnick

Dennis J. Kucinich

Bobby L. Rush

Marcia L. Fudge

Jesse L. Jackson

Betty Sutton

Daniel Lipinski

Mary Jo Kilroy

Luis V. Gutierrez

Tim Ryan

Mike Quigley

David Wu

Danny K. Davis

Earl Blumenauer

Janice D. Schakowsky

Peter A. DeFazio

Mark Steven Kirk

Chaka Fattah

Bill Foster

Joe Sestak

Phil Hare

Patrick J. Murphy

Andre Carson

Allyson Y. Schwartz

Dennis Moore

Todd Russell Platts

John A. Yarmuth

Patrick J. Kennedy

Ben Chandler

James R. Langevin

John W. Olver

Bob Inglis

Richard E. Neal

John M. Spratt

James P. McGovern

Jim Cooper

Barney Frank

Bart Gordon

Niki Tsongas

Steve Cohen

John F. Tierney

Lloyd Doggett

Edward J. Markey

Robert C. "Bobby" Scott

Michael E. Capuano

Thomas S.P. Perriello

Stephen F. Lynch

James P. Moran

William D. Delahunt

Frank R. Wolf

John P. Sarbanes

Gerald E. "Gerry" Connolly

Donna F. Edwards

Donna M. Christensen

Elijah E. Cummings

Peter Welch

Chris Van Hollen

Jay Inslee

Chellie Pingree

Brian Baird

Michael H. Michaud

Jim McDermott

Vernon J. Ehlers

David G. Reichert

Dale E. Kildee

Adam Smith

Sander M. Levin

Tammy Baldwin

Carolyn C. Kilpatrick

Steve Kagen

John Conyers