Will Congress overturn Bush administration policy?

As the U.S. House and Senate prepared this spring for hearings on legislation to strengthen clean water protections for smaller streams and wetlands, so far, from Iowa, only Rep. Bruce Braley has signed on to co-sponsor the Clean Water Restoration Act.

Over the past five years, the Bush administration’s “No Protection” policy and decisions in favor of polluters made by the U.S. Supreme Court have chipped away at protections for smaller streams and wetlands, by narrowly defining the Clean Water Act. The Bush administration’s policy has put 59 percent of the stream miles in the continental United States at risk of increased pollution.

More than 110 million Americans rely on drinking water from public waters fed by these streams. The Clean Water Restoration Act would restore strong Clean Water Act protections to these streams and wetlands across the country.

EPA comes up short on new smog standards

Environment Iowa pressed for stronger smog standards that would force more polluters to clean up. On Jan. 3, Margie Alt, executive director of our national federation, Environment America, joined several of our allies in urging Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen Johnson to strengthen the nation’s smog standards.

But Johnson announced in March that the agency would adopt a new smog rule that’s less protective of public health than the one recommended by EPA’s own scientific advisers. In addition, under the guise of “modernizing” the Clean Air Act, Johnson called for fundamental changes to the Clean Air Act, including requiring implementation costs to be considered in setting air quality standards and allowing states and local areas to ignore air pollution problems. Half of all Americans live in places where air pollution threatens public health. The EPA’s smog standards force polluters that exceed air pollution limits to clean up, but several studies show that smog standards are too low to protect public health.

We’re pushing for strong protections for Lake Okoboji and other waterways.