Audubon California and many Audubon Chapters are sponsoring a major clean water and wetlands bill to fill in a huge gap created recently in the federal Clean Water Act.  Senate Bill 1477, authored by Senator Byron Sher (D- Palo Alto), will require the State Water Resources Control Board to regulate fill and discharges into non-navigable, intrastate waters that are no longer federally protected.  Those waters include California's seasonal rivers, streams and lakes, vernal pools, more than half of the state's wetlands, many of the streams and lakes in the Sierras, and the drinking water sources for more than half of all Californians.

Following a very narrowly worded Supreme Court decision in 2001, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a "guidance" to its field offices that virtually eliminates federal protection for almost 20 million acres of sensitive wetlands and thousands of miles of streams.  In response to overwhelming public and state opposition, the EPA dropped its formal rulemaking process to codify the change, but did not withdraw the “guidance” to its field offices to eliminate protection of these waters, in effect leaving the enormous and very dangerous loophole in place.   Several states, including New York, Wisconsin and Ohio, have introduced legislation to fill in the gap.

California has as much or more at stake than other states.  Because California receives most of its rain and snow during the winter, many of its streams and lakes are dry for much of the year.  Many others are simply not navigable.   Many of these wetlands provide pollution protection and additional sources for some or all of the drinking water for more than twenty million Californians.  These non-navigable waters are no longer provided the basic protections of the Federal Clean Water Act.      

Clean water is essential to human health.  It is also essential to California's economy.  Many of these unprotected waters provide important flood and erosion control, water filtration, and habitat for fisheries, endangered species, and game species.   In California alone, wildlife related activities add $2.6 billion annually to the State's economy.  The water filtration and flood control services provided by these unprotected waters save millions of dollars as well.  And even the President's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) found recently that pollution control laws save far more in public health dollars than they cost to implement.

Californians overwhelmingly support clean water protection and, not surprisingly, rank it as one of the State's biggest priorities.  Eighty percent of all Californians are concerned about water pollution in California.  76 percent only drink bottled or filtered tap water.  Water pollution, like most types of pollution, disproportionately affects low-income communities and California's most vulnerable populations:  children, the elderly and those with impaired immune systems.  But it affects us all.

Please help Audubon California and your Audubon Chapter to pass SB 1477 by contacting your state Senator and Assembly member and urging them to support SB 1477.  You can find out who your state legislators are by going to www.vote-smart.org. To get their contact information go to www.senate.ca.gov or www.assembly.ca.gov and click on "legislators." 

For more information, background materials, and sample support letters, go to www.audubon-ca.org.