The Clean Water Protection Act

The Clean Water Protection Act, HR 1375, 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 112th Congress. Please contact your representative today and ask them to become a cosponsor!

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121	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 cosponsors from the 111th Congress
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 8, 2002, the Clean Water Protection Act was introduced in to the 107th Congress with 1 original cosponsor and ended that session with a 37 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! Because Representatives from around the country received thousands of letters from people like you, it had a record 121 cosponsors by the end of the 111th Congress.

On April 5th, 2011, the bill was reintroduced in the 112th Congress. It currently has 121 cosponsors.

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

The Clean Water Protection Act

121 cosponsors in the 112th Congress (2011 - 2012) as of May 20, 2012

Congress-person

State

District

Congress-person

State

District

Raul M. Grijalva

Sander M. Levin

Doris O. Matsui

Hansen Clarke

Lynn C. Woolsey

John Conyers

George Miller

Betty McCollum

Barbara Lee

Keith Ellison

John Garamendi

Russ Carnahan

Jerry McNerney

Emanuel Cleaver

Jackie Speier

G. K. Butterfield

Fortney Pete Stark

David E. Price

Michael M. Honda

Larry Kissell

Zoe Lofgren

Heath Shuler

Lois Capps

Melvin L. Watt

Brad Sherman

Brad Miller

Howard L. Berman

Robert E. Andrews

Adam B. Schiff

Frank Pallone

Henry A. Waxman

Bill Pascrell

Judy Chu

Steven R. Rothman

Lucille Roybal-Allard

Rush D. Holt

Maxine Waters

Albio Sires

Janice Hahn

Steve Israel

Laura Richardson

Carolyn McCarthy

Grace F. Napolitano

Gary L. Ackerman

Linda T. Sanchez

Gregory W. Meeks

Bob Filner

Joseph Crowley

Susan A. Davis

Jerrold Nadler

Diana DeGette

Edolphus Towns

Jared Polis

Yvette D. Clarke

John B. Larson

Nydia M. Velazquez

Rosa L. DeLauro

Carolyn B. Maloney

James A. Himes

Charles B. Rangel

Christopher S. Murphy

Jose E. Serrano

Eleanor Holmes Norton

Eliot L. Engel

Kathy Castor

Nita M. Lowey

Theodore E. Deutch

Paul Tonko

Alcee L. Hastings

Maurice D. Hinchey

Henry C. "Hank Johnson

William L. Owens

John Lewis

Brian Higgins

Colleen W. Hanabusa

Louise McIntosh Slaughter

Bruce L. Braley

Dennis J. Kucinich

Jesse L. Jackson

Tim Ryan

Luis V. Gutierrez

David Wu

Mike Quigley

Earl Blumenauer

Janice D. Schakowsky

Peter A. DeFazio

Andre Carson

Chaka Fattah

John A. Yarmuth

Michael G. Fitzpatrick

Ben Chandler

Allyson Y. Schwartz

John W. Olver

James R. Langevin

James P. McGovern

Jim Cooper

Barney Frank

Steve Cohen

Niki Tsongas

Sheila Jackson Lee

John F. Tierney

Lloyd Doggett

Edward J. Markey

Robert C. "Bobby" Scott

Stephen F. Lynch

James P. Moran

William R. Keating

Gerald E. "Gerry" Connolly

John P. Sarbanes

Donna M. Christensen

Donna F. Edwards

Peter Welch

Elijah E. Cummings

Jay Inslee

Chris Van Hollen

Jim McDermott

Chellie Pingree

David G. Reichert

Michael H. Michaud

Adam Smith

Dale E. Kildee