"Trickle Down" Environmentalism A "seemingly unending campaign to roll back our most basic environmental protections." That is how Joseph Leiberman, the Connecticut Democrat, described the current Administration's actions towards our environmental laws. With a much larger presence in beach communities than in Washington, D.C., and Surfrider Foundation's grassroots focus, it is sometimes easy to forget that federal environmental policies are still a cornerstone of protection of our oceans, waves and beaches. Most of the environmental policy "tools" that our chapter activists use to defend the coast, such as the right to make public comment on development projects, the right to beach access, or tough water quality regulations were established through Federal legislation that then "trickled down" to states, counties and local communities. Perhaps the most fundamental of these laws for the average surfer is the Clean Water Act. Ensuring clean ocean water in which to surf, swim, dive and recreate is clearly one the primary goals that unites all activists at Surfrider. Most of us consider this not a luxury but a fundamental necessity. During the late 1960's and early 1970's many surfers woke up to the pollution problem when they saw sewage bubbling up in the line-up of surf spots or witnessed the spectacle of Ohio's Cuyahoga River bursting into flames. It became clear that the ocean was no longer so vast that it could assimilate all of the pollution being dumped into it, and the effects were being seen at the coast. These realizations and growing public awareness and concern for controlling water pollution led to enactment of the Clean Water Act in 1972, which was signed by the Republican President Richard Nixon. Over thirty years later, Surfrider chapters continue to use the power of the Clean Water Act to stop poorly treated sewage from being dumped in the waters off Huntington Beach, support tough storm water regulations to reduce the impacts of urban runoff in San Clemente, or force the clean up of toxic heavy metals in the Hudson River. These are just a few examples. To this day, the Clean Water Act continues to be the cornerstone of coastal water quality protection throughout the nation.

For three decades, national water pollution control efforts have been guided by the fundamental goals of the Clean Water Act: that rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters be safe for swimming and boating, and any fish caught should be safe to eat. The Clean Water Act established the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants into the waters of the United States, and it gave Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the authority to implement pollution control programs. These responsibilities have "trickled down" to state, county and local regulations that our chapters use or enforce daily. Without a strong Clean Water Act we would be missing the critical tool for coastal water quality protection. Although progress has been made, the EPA's latest annual water quality report shows that forty-five percent of the nation's waterways are too polluted for fishing or swimming. While obviously there is still a lot of work to be done to clean the nation's waters, the current federal Administration is taking actions that are undermining this important Act. For example, as recently as December 2002, the EPA formally withdrew a Clinton administration rule that imposed federal oversight on states' efforts to clean up some 20,000 of the nation's polluted waterways. By making it easier for states to remove waterways from the clean up list and making it more difficult for additional waterways to be added to the list, the new rule will make these necessary clean up efforts less likely to occur. Additionally, the administration is proposing to weaken or has already weakened requirements for treating raw sewage, cleaning up polluted waters, keeping solid waste out of waters and protecting wetlands. Clean water should be a non-partisan issue that makes good financial sense and is important to anyone who surfs or recreates at the beach. We need a strong Clean Water Act that will trickle down to local actions that will protect and improve water quality along our coasts. Take action and send a clear message that you support a strong clean water act: http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/surf_clean_water *   *   *