September 04, 2014 01:56 PM UTC

The Colorado River, the California drought and how you can help from Sara Lu

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• by: wade norris

Do you like Blueberries? Tomatoes? Fruit and Vegetables in general?
Pay attention. California supplies the half of the United States produce and California is in the midst of a drought that could effect all of our families.
And at this critical time, when we need every drop of water, the EPA and US Senate are going to be ruling on which water systems should be protected – and your public comment to the EPA can help that cause.

I talked with Sara Lu of Colorado Clean Water Action on this subject and the coming ruling of the EPA and the Senate on the
“Waters of the United States”, a ruling that could restore protection to our waterways in this critical drought period.

(Question) Tell me about the Waters in the United States…

One of the Biggest campaigns we are working on is to define through the best scientific information available, what constitutes a ‘Water of the United States’ as covered by the Clean Water Act. Really what this rule does is re-establish protections for our waters that constitute the drinking water and recreational water and the agricultural water for over 117 million Americans.
When the Bush administration reinterpreted the Clean Water Act over 65% of Colorado’s Waters and Streams were put ‘at-risk’.
(the Ruling) is open for public comment until October 20 after which the US Senate has to vote to adopt that rule or not.
We are working to educate the public and help them to know that they have a voice and can submit their own comments.
They can go to the EPA website or they can go to the CleanWater.org website which will give them directions to submit their comments.

This ruling will return the EPA standards to Pre-Bush Era standards, which is barely a decade old. Yet there are some, like at Fox news who are asking
“Will EPA Water Grab tip US back into Recession?”

I think the real question is can we afford not to protect as much of the water ways as possible when you look at images like these before and after pictures of Lake Shasta?

Take a moment to visit the comment page at CleanWater.org or go directly to the EPA Waters of the United States page and let the EPA hear why expanding protection of water is important to YOU.