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Tell Congress to Keep Sewage Out of Our Drinking Water!

Target: The U.S. Congress
Sponsored by: League of Conservation Voters

Two phrases you never want to see in the same sentence: drinking water and "sewage blending." And yet, that's the Bush Administration's new plan for your water supply!

Incredibly, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is about to relax restrictions on dumping sewage into our waterways. Their plan would allow water treatment facilities to release sewage filled with human wastes, toxins, bacteria, viruses, parasites and other pollutants into our drinking water.

"Sewage blending" poses a serious threat to our health and our communities. Sewage that has not been fully treated carries diseases such as cholera, hepatitis, respiratory infections, and others which can be life threatening for those with weakened immune systems.

In addition to the health hazards, sewage dumping will have adverse, long-term environmental and economic consequences. Sewage in our waterways forces beach closings, increases the cost of drinking water filtration, damages coral reefs, shuts down shellfish beds, and robs the water of oxygen that fish need to breathe.

This proposal is so outrageous, we've got to get EVERYONE to take action to defeat it. Urge Congress to support the Save Our Waters from Sewage Act (H.R. 1126) to protect our families, children and communities from unsafe drinking water!

A vote on this bill could come as soon as May 19th, so please act today! Your help is critical to LCV as it works to protect our families from unsafe drinking water and to shape a pro-environment Congress and White House.

UPDATE: On May 19th, by a vote of 329-89 the House of Representatives approved a $7.57 billion buget for the EPA for fiscal year 2006.

In an important environmental victory, the House barred the EPA from adopting a policy that would have permitted the blending of partially and fully treated sewage into our water supply after heavy rains and snow melts. At the same time, lawmakers rejected amendments to increase spending for specific EPA programs dealing with wastewater and Superfund cleanup.

We could not have achieved this victory against "sewage blending" without the huge outpouring of letters and comments from concerned citizens like you. A heartfelt thank you to all who spoke out against this outrageous policy proposal that threatened our drinking water!

deadline: 5-12-2006
goal: 25,000

17,614
signatures!

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Dear [your Congressperson],

As your constituent, I strongly urge you to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from relaxing its policies on discharging inadequately treated sewage into our waters.

Sewer authorities have been misled to believe that the solution to insufficient maintenance of aging sewer systems is to dump sewage that has been diverted around secondary treatment units, allowing sewage that has had no biological treatment to remove pathogens and pollutants to reach our water systems.

This process, known as sewage blending, would not only fail to address the maintenance of the sewer systems, but would also fill our rivers, lakes and coastal waters with wastes, bacteria and viruses that will make more than eight million Americans sick every year from exposure to polluted waters.

I encourage you to support the Save Our Waters from Sewage Act (H.R. 1126) to protect our families, children and communities from unnecessary illnesses.

Sincerely,
[your name]

We signed the “Tell Congress to Keep Sewage Out of Our Drinking Water!” petition!

# 17,550:

12:42 pm PDT, Apr 26, Jamie Smith, Massachusetts

# 17,549:

11:23 am PDT, Apr 26, Simone Brito Pena, Brazil
Stop destroying the world NOW!!! We can't drink MONEY, save our WATER!!!

# 17,548:

10:03 am PDT, Apr 26, Angelica Hawkins, Indiana
WOW...Lets just make everyone sick and not be able to work, it is hard enough to survive without having to worry about polluted water supplies

# 17,547:

4:22 am PDT, Apr 26, Selina Schecroun, Virginia
Stop poisonning citizens who cannot afford bottled water!

# 17,546:

6:49 pm PDT, Apr 25, Onedia Pyle, North Carolina

# 17,545:

5:35 pm PDT, Apr 25, Angela Le, California

# 17,544:

4:54 pm PDT, Apr 25, Stacey Messer, New Hampshire
I believe it is painfully clear already!!

# 17,543:

4:03 pm PDT, Apr 25, Spanky Mcdanky, California

# 17,542:

8:09 am PDT, Apr 25, Martha Gonzalez, Texas

# 17,541:

7:37 am PDT, Apr 25, Echo Mesaga, Wisconsin

# 17,540:

7:10 am PDT, Apr 25, Anne G, New Mexico
Hello-o-o-o-o-o-o......... Clean air & clean water: it's a necessity for continued life on the planet. Please don't DILUTE our clean water statutes already in place.

# 17,539:

6:14 am PDT, Apr 25, John Storer, Ohio

# 17,538:

5:43 am PDT, Apr 25, James Utterback, Illinois

# 17,537:

3:19 am PDT, Apr 25, Gary Grossman, California

# 17,536:

12:09 am PDT, Apr 25, Allen Horvath, Florida

# 17,535:

11:00 pm PDT, Apr 24, Claire Dunaway, Texas

# 17,534:

9:49 pm PDT, Apr 24, Rosemary Rannes, Canada
Firstly - WATER IS A GIFT TO BE HONORED FROM OUR MOTHER EARTH ! Obviously opposing the EPA'S new "sewage blending" plan is a NO BRAINER!

# 17,533:

6:32 pm PDT, Apr 24, Darline Stoddard, New York

# 17,532:

8:27 pm PDT, Apr 23, Gonzalo Hurtado, Peru

# 17,531:

9:40 pm PDT, Apr 22, Sonja Schlesner, Wisconsin
Water is the essence of our life. Keep it clean.

# 17,530:

4:44 pm PDT, Apr 22, Glenn Huffer, Virginia

# 17,529:

1:01 pm PDT, Apr 22, Pamela L. DeLitta, Texas

# 17,528:

8:32 am PDT, Apr 22, Jennifer Valentine, New York

# 17,527:

2:01 am PDT, Apr 22, Name not displayed, Ohio

# 17,526:

11:12 pm PDT, Apr 21, Natalie Aubuchon, California

# 17,525:

10:49 am PDT, Apr 21, Christine Mora, New Jersey

# 17,524:

4:52 am PDT, Apr 21, Robert Dunbar, North Carolina

# 17,523:

4:17 am PDT, Apr 21, B. DeWayne Fulton, Tennessee
Clean water is essential to healthy living for humans and all other life. Congress must work harder of protect the "clean water act" and promote safer rivers and streams. Waste water treatment needs to be done correctly, not by "sewage blending."

# 17,522:

4:58 pm PDT, Apr 20, Rhonda Blair, Alabama
People please stand up and tell our government NO WAY! I bet you wouldn't get them or their children to drink this blended water....and if they were that stupid...I'm not.

# 17,521:

3:58 pm PDT, Apr 19, Melissa Bardwell, Washington

# 17,520:

8:43 am PDT, Apr 19, Clint Roberts, Georgia

# 17,519:

8:24 am PDT, Apr 19, Raellen Watt, New York

# 17,518:

9:01 pm PDT, Apr 18, Name not displayed, Colorado

# 17,517:

2:50 pm PDT, Apr 18, Jackie Paramore, Montana

# 17,516:

1:44 pm PDT, Apr 18, Maxine Bailey, Washington

# 17,515:

1:06 pm PDT, Apr 18, Dawn Donahue, Ohio
I want CLEAN and SAFE drinking water! I am not going to stand for this unsanitary thinking in congress that "sewage blending" is the way to go! Are THEY going to be the FIRST to step up and DRINK it on a nationally televised event and PROCLAIM that it is safe? I DON'T THINK SO! NEITHER WOULD I!

# 17,514:

2:31 am PDT, Apr 18, Susanna Tocco, Florida
The Gov. wants to irradiate fresh produce, but yet, thinks it's ok to mix drinking water & sewage? WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON HERE??? NO TO BOTH.

# 17,513:

8:08 pm PDT, Apr 17, Nick Toner, Canada
can you please stop putting sewage water into our drinking water because it will cause germs

# 17,512:

6:45 pm PDT, Apr 17, Kelly Willliams, California
We need safe drinking water free from sewage related bacteria & viruses.

# 17,511:

5:54 pm PDT, Apr 17, Robin Kishmirian, California

# 17,510:

1:11 pm PDT, Apr 17, Batykefer Jourdan, Pennsylvania

# 17,509:

11:43 am PDT, Apr 17, Velena Johnson, New Jersey

# 17,508:

11:03 am PDT, Apr 17, Mario Alberto Dominguez Ar, Mexico

# 17,507:

3:54 am PDT, Apr 17, Tze Hui, Malaysia

# 17,506:

1:23 pm PDT, Apr 16, Chris Simmons, Illinois

# 17,505:

11:56 am PDT, Apr 16, David Afonso, Portugal

# 17,504:

5:52 am PDT, Apr 16, Brandi Krause, Illinois

# 17,503:

2:52 pm PDT, Apr 15, Christina Faustini, Florida

# 17,502:

8:44 am PDT, Apr 15, Paul Raymond Walsh, New York

# 17,501:

7:28 pm PDT, Apr 14, Amber Na, Alaska
YES!

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Tell Congress to Keep Sewage Out of Our Drinking Water!

This petition has been closed.