Proposal will protect water (yours and mine) nationwide

Clean water is important.  If you agree, click here.  End of post.

Just kidding! Our communications director would never let me get away with a two-sentence blog post so I’ll elaborate. Keep in mind, however, that my message today is painfully simple: Clean water is important and if you agree, you need to speak up.

Water is important to everyone, every day -- for drinking, bathing, fishing, and swimming.  Businesses and agriculture need it, too. So it might surprise you that over half of all streams and millions of acres of wetlands across the country are lacking clear federal protections from pollution (the reasons why have been discussed on this blog previously). This lack of protection puts the drinking water of 117 million Americans, including 8 million Pennsylvanians, at risk.

Fortunately, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have a proposal that will clarify and strengthen protections for vital upstream headwaters that provide clean water to all of us downstream. EPA’s proposal is important so if you agree, please let them know. Now. And thanks!

Jennifer Quinn is central Pennsylvania outreach coordinator for PennFuture and is based in Harrisburg. She tweets @QuinnJen1.