October 30, 2009

The Honorable Barbara Boxer, Chair
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
410 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

RE: Require Efficiency Investment of at least 1/3 of Allowance Value Given to Electric Utilities

Dear Chairwoman Boxer:

Eight years after September 11th, sobering warnings remain unheeded regarding the vulnerability of U.S. chemical plants to terrorist attacks. Journalists across the country have repeatedly made their way into more than 80 chemical plants demonstrating the ease with which fence-line security can be penetrated. As President Obama said in 2006, "these plants are stationary weapons of mass destruction spread all across the country."

The potential for fatalities and economic disruption from an attack on one of these plants is staggering. A 2001 U.S. Army Surgeon General study estimated that in densely populated areas 900,000 to 2.4 million people could be killed or injured in a terrorist attack on a U.S. chemical plant in a densely populated area.

How and Why Clean Water Protections Are Being Weakened

Since the 1972 passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, we have made great progress in cleaning up our nation's waters. But recently, longstanding protections have been rolled back and the Clean Water Act, considered one of the country's most successful environmental laws, is now failing to protect all of America's waters.

Clean Water Currents, Volume 37, No. 2, Summer 2009

You will need to have the Adobe Acrobat Reader properly installed to view PDF documents. You can get it free from Adobe.

In this issue of Clean Water Currents|Online:

For California Woman, Protecting A River Can Cost You A Job
Heather Wylie traded her job for a river. And, given the choice, she'd do it again.

Summer 2009, Volume 37, No. 2

Children's bubble baths should be clean, safe and fun. But No More Toxic Tub, a report published in March 2009 by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics in partnership with Clean Water Action and other organizations, found contaminants and other hazardous ingredients in numerous popular shampoos, soaps and body care products marketed to babies and children. The report lists 38 products that were shown to be contaminated with the carcinogenic chemicals formaldehyde, 1,4-dioxane or both, although neither contaminant appears on product labels.

Executive Summary

For decades, the Clean Water Act protected the Nation's surface water bodies from unregulated pollution and rescued them from the crisis status they were in during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Now these vital protections are being lost. This report details the threat to our Nation's waters by examining dozens of case studies, and highlights the urgent need for Congress to restore full Clean Water Act protections to our waters.

Clean Water Currents|Online, Summer 2009, Volume 37, No. 2

Legislation introduced in the United States Senate April 2 would restore critical Clean Water Act protections lost through six years of confusing and contradictory court and government agency decisions.

The Clean Water Restoration Act was introduced by Sen. Russell Feingold, D-WI, and several co-sponsors.

Information on Clean Water Action's most recently completed fiscal years is summarized in the documents available for download below.

Fiscal Year 2008 (October 1, 2007 through September 30, 2008)

Audited Financial Statement, September 30, 2008 (pdf, 1.1 MB)

Clean Water Currents|Online, Summer 2009, Volume 37, No. 2