I loathe Roberts, Alito, Scalia, and Thomas with an absolute, all consuming, passion.

[tjwash]

In February, the Huffington Post ran an excellent article that featured “the four horsemen” as I refer to them. The article was about how this tight little ultra conservative clique, is effectively dismantling the clean water act.

After twenty two years as a clean water advocate using the Clean Water Act to protect America's waterways and the communities that rely upon them, it's been a difficult five years watching the White House systematically dismantle that popular and fantastically successful statute.

But yesterday, the newly constituted Roberts/Alito/Scalia/Thomas-dominated Supreme Court signaled the worst attack yet -- one that may effectively destroy the Clean Water Act entirely.

Passed in 1970, the Clean Water Act promised to eliminate pollution in America's waters by 1985 by prohibiting unpermitted discharges of pollutants into "waters of the United States." While the statute has fallen short of its lofty goal to end all pollution, it did succeed in ending the dark ages when the Cuyahoga River burned, Lake Erie was declared dead and Americans could not safely fish or swim in our major rivers including the Mississippi, the Potomac and the Hudson.

Recognizing that water is a continuum, and that the purposes of the law would be easily circumvented if polluters could simply relocate their discharge pipes into smaller tributaries, drainage ditches and wetlands, the courts have consistently defined "Waters of the United States" broadly to include all tributaries and wetlands that flow into larger navigable waterbodies. Only the most isolated waters that have no hydrological connection to larger water bodies were exempt from federal regulation under the Act.

Well, yesterday, it came to fruition. Official limits on clean water law enforcement were adopted.

The landmark U.S. law to fight water pollution will now apply only to bodies of water large enough for boats to use, and their adjacent wetlands, and will not automatically protect streams, the U.S. government said on Tuesday.

Environmental groups said they fear the new policy will muddy the purpose of the federal Clean Water Act and put many smaller bodies of water at risk. Democrats in Congress have introduced legislation mandating protection of creeks, estuaries and other watersheds.

The Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers wrote the new guidelines after the Supreme Court split a year ago in a case about which waters fall under the Clean Water Act.

Because of the split decision, lower courts must decide on a case-by-case basis if the law applies to smaller water areas.

So the split decision by the four horsemen basically makes moot any congressional changes to the law to protect the estuaries. It means they are going to take things on a "case by case" basis. That effectively means nothing will get done at all in several of our states.

And just to twist the knife a little harder, The EPA just released a report showing that one-third of our water estuaries are in bad shape. So the estuaries that feed the lakes, and are not covered by the new law are in trouble, and will be handled on a “case by case basis”.

More than one-third of the coastal waters that link America's rivers and oceans are in poor condition, the Environmental Protection Agency said in a report on Tuesday, with Puerto Rico and the Northeast coast faring the worst.

The EPA analyzed 1,239 sites in its first survey of the country's 28 major estuaries, which provide breeding grounds and shelter for fish and birds.
It found that bodies of water with large numbers of people living nearby suffered the most. While counties with big estuaries make up only 6 percent of the coastal land area, they contain more than two-thirds of the coastal population.

The impact of building communities and shipping facilities, and providing them with sewers, put the estuaries under stress.

In estuaries in Northeastern states, between 10 and 20 percent of the water was polluted, and more than 15 percent of the sediment was contaminated, the survey found. More than 10 percent of the organisms and fish in the estuaries facing the northern Atlantic Ocean suffered from chemical contamination.

*Shakes head*

I need to write another letter to my congress critter now…

[Nederland]

1. I feel sorry for you

Hatred like that is never healthy.

[WindRavenX]

2. I know I use this word a lot...

...but Scalia is a facist of the worst kind.

[MistressOverdone]

3. Life is too short

You do what you can. Don't waste yourself on hate..doesn't hurt THEM at all..just shortens your life.

You make a compelling case, and if I allowed myself I guess I could join you. But I have learned not to. Might be because I'm getting older. Takes a lot of energy to hate.

[indepat]

4. I don't hate the felonious four or anyone else 'tho I loathe and despise almost

everything they do and stand for as would anyone who has had a recent reality check.

[MistressOverdone]

8. I would suppose

that hating an action is less harmful to us personally, than hating the person. I think perhaps that hate might inspire us to take action.

[indepat]

9. My action is to just try to vote rascals out of office 'tho these felonious four are entrenched for

life, most/all of which will likely be around longer than me.

[libodem]

5. tj...I don't care what they say

I'll help you hate 'em. You can help me hate Cheney and Bush. It's a hate-fest.

[Phredicles]

6. No need to let A. Kennedy off the hook;

he may not be one of them but he votes with them often enough. And his 5th vote is what gives them real power.

If by some miracle we ever have 67 senators we should run all 5 of 'em out onto the street.

[mondo joe]

7. It seems to me like a lot of energy to invest into something futile.

On the other hand, if you find that motivating maybe it's a good investment.