Piss on it

[Timbuk3]

Because, according to the dominionists in Bush's government, "trickle down" doesn't work. (Get it? Get it?)

U.S. adopts limits on clean water law enforcement

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - 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.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0531003820070605

Pardon the pun, but it's time to stop the erosion of the judiciary.

[rodeodance]

1. "In effect, the EPA and the Corps are taking their field staff and the public out to the woods, blin

"In effect, the EPA and the Corps are taking their field staff and the public out to the woods, blindfolding them, spinning them in circles, telling them to 'go west,' and calling that guidance," complained Jon Devine, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The EPA's new policy does not offer clear instructions to scientists in the field on how to protect surface waters, Devine said, and would eliminate protections for many streams. He also said the case-by-case decisions would inspire an onslaught of lawsuits and public confusion.

John Woodley, Assistant Secretary of the Army, said there would be no way to measure changes from the guidance.

But, he said, the waterways in the Supreme Court case would have been considered wetlands according to EPA's new guidance.

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Angered by the Supreme Court's split, Democratic lawmakers last month introduced the "Clean Water Restoration Act" that would drop the word "navigable" from the original law.

[Hubert Flottz]

2. BushCo did that so the Mountain Top Removal can go on and fill

in small streams. The federal courts had stopped the coal companies/Corps of Engineers from filling in the streams with the overburden from these mine sites. The flooding from this will be bad news. The sediment will fill in the larger streams downstream from these operations and when the storms come the water having no place to go, will flood people's homes and businesses near these filled in streams. All aquatic life in these small streams will be snuffed out forever. Families who have lived near these streams for generations, will be forced out of their homes and off their property by flood water.

[Timbuk3]

3. It's worse than I thought n/t