Tell Congress to Keep Sewage Out of Our Drinking Water!
- by: League of Conservation Voters
- recipient: The U.S. Congress
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.
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.
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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]
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