Clean water is the lifeblood of Pennsylvania and our country. Rivers and streams flow through our communities, providing our clean drinking water, irrigating the crops that grow our food, powering our economy and giving our families opportunities to live healthy lifestyles and connect with nature. Healthy rivers aren’t a luxury – they are essential to the well-being of each and every American.
Yet our country’s clean water has never been more at risk. As we look back on President Trump’s first year in office, it’s clear that his administration is prioritizing polluters over people and working overtime to shred safeguards that have benefitted Pennsylvania’s families for decades.
Among the Trump Administration’s most alarming actions is its effort to reverse the Clean Water Rule, which safeguards the small streams and wetlands that are the drinking water supplies for one in three Americans. Many communities in Pennsylvania rely on these sources for their drinking water.
Despite more than one million supportive public comments and more than 1,200 individually peer-reviewed studies providing the scientific foundation for the Clean Water Rule, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is working to dismantle these protections that are vital for our health, safety and economy.
Administrator Pruitt is also engaging in an unprecedented effort to undermine transparency and conceal his deep ties to the oil and gas industry and other polluters. Pruitt has tried to cover up his meetings with polluters, refusing to release his daily schedule and spending $25,000 to install a custom “secrecy booth” in his personal office. As citizens and taxpayers, this is unacceptable – public servants like Scott Pruitt should be working to improve the health and lives of American families, not to line the pockets of corporate fat cats.
EPA’s proposed budget would be disastrous for pollution prevention efforts in Pennsylvania and nationwide. The budget proposal slashes funding for vital environmental initiatives including EPA’s enforcement and compliance program for bedrock environmental laws. The budget eliminates funding for regional restoration efforts, including the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and the Chesapeake Bay Program, each of which provide resources to states and communities trying to restore and protect the rivers that flow into these iconic waterways. Pennsylvania is part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed and stands to lose funding in EPA’s proposed budget.
America’s most vulnerable communities – including black, Latino, Asian, Indigenous and low-income white Americans – will be disproportionately impacted by these budget cuts and the Trump Administration’s rollbacks of core environmental and health safeguards.
We can’t afford to let Pennsylvania and the nation slip backward, returning to the days of widespread polluted streams. Nobody, Republican or Democrat, wants contaminated water flowing from our faucets. Every member of Pennsylvania’s Congressional delegation needs to stand up for our clean water and the health of Pennsylvania’s families. We must oppose this onslaught of attacks to ensure a future of clean water for our children and grandchildren.
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