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Congress considers major clean water bill

Measure critical to protecting Georgia rivers

This fall, the top priority of Environment Georgia’s Clean Rivers program is to restore critical protections for the countless streams and wetlands that feed in to Georgia’s beautiful rivers.

Clean Water Act weakened

Rivers such as the Chattahoochee are only as healthy as the rivers and streams that feed them and the wetlands that help keep them clean. Unfortunately, in a legal challenge brought by developers in Washington state, a bitterly divided Supreme Court decision wrote these vital waters out of the Clean Water Act.

As a result, the EPA estimates that as many as 57 percent of Georgia’s brooks and streams—and countless acres of wetlands—are at risk from unregulated pollution. This pollution could affect the drinking water of nearly 4 million Georgians.

Protect all waters

Fortunately, there is a simple solution to this problem. We just need the Clean Water Act to work the way it did for 35 years—protecting every river, stream and marsh in the nation. The Clean Water Restoration Act, pending in Congress, would do just that.

The bill will be heard by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and will be adamantly opposed by powerful interests—including developers and corporate agribusiness.