No public notice? Not on our watch!

CCI members' hard work at the Capitol is paying off but we aren’t done yet.  A bad water quality bill, House File 311, passed out of the House Environmental Protection but not before 1 of 2 bad sections of the bill were gutted thanks to our work.

 VICTORY!!  The section that was cut from the bill allowed automatic approval of a Clean Water Act  permit if the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) did not address the application within 90 days.  The amendment cutting this bad section out of the bill passed unanimously in committee.  This goes to show that your hard work at the Capitol testifying at subcommittee meetings and lobbying your local legislators pays off!TAKE ACTION! The remaining bad section of this bill eliminates public notice in newspapers when an application for a Clean Water Act permit is submitted.  Iowans deserve public notice so they can take action against a polluter entering their community.  This bill seems to be a deliberate attempt by the Branstad/Reynolds Administration to undercut sweeping new changes being demanded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).“Branstad, Reynolds and the corporate-controlled DNR know that big changes in the way the state of Iowa enforces the Clean Water Act are coming, and removing public notice requirements from the permitting process is one of the ways they can undercut the upcoming reforms,” said Lori Nelson, a CCI Action  Fund member from Bayard.“The other way they’ve already started pushing back is by only funding five new DNR field staff when it’s clear we need at least new 13 staff to get the job done.”Iowa needs stronger permitting standards and local control – not a system where the people are shut out.TAKE ACTION NOW! HF 311 will be up for a full vote of House Representatives soon. Tell your Representative to vote no on this bill by clicking here!