By Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Pa.), Opinion Contributor — 02/16/18 02:30 PM EST 8
The Views Expressed By Contributors Are Their Own and Not the View of the Hill
The Trump administration has pursued a dirty war on clean water. As a member of Congress I’ve spoken out against their efforts to rollback policies, like the Clean Water Rule because they ignore science and put Americans’ health at risk by endangering their drinking water.
Pennsylvania has abundant water resources with approximately 86,000 miles of streams, 404,000 acres of wetlands, 161,445 acres of lakes and 17 square miles of the Delaware estuary. Since Federal adoption of clean water legislation the Delaware River Basin is cleaner and healthier than they have been in well over a century.
These water resources are vital to overall ecosystem health and the economic well-being in the Commonwealth, and particularly the Delaware Valley. One hundred percent of Philadelphia residents get their drinking water from the Delaware and Schuykill Rivers which are feed by small streams like Wissahicon Creek that the Clean Water Rule protects.
Because the groundwater in Pennsylvania is becoming more contaminated from legacy pollution we are increasingly reliant on having clean surface water sources for our drinking water. The large scale closings of public wells in Montgomery and Bucks Counties resulting from the chemical contamination found after the Warminster and Willow Grove Naval Stations closed is only the most recent example of this problem.
It’s not only our health but our economy that is at stake. Clean water supports many job sectors in Pennsylvania as diverse as wildlife recreation (with $2.8 billion spent annually in our economy) and small local breweries (with $2.0 billion spent annually).
Read more at http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/374259-trump-administrations-attack-on-clean-water-is-hurting.
Leave a Reply