GP Condemns House Passage Dirty Water Act

[The.Greenbase@gb.greenpeace.org]

      GREENPEACE CONDEMNS HOUSE PASSAGE OF DIRTY WATER ACT

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                   GREENPEACE PRESS RELEASE
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                   TUESDAY, 17 MAY, 1995


      GREENPEACE CONDEMNS HOUSE PASSAGE OF DIRTY WATER ACT


WASHINGTON, May 17, 1995 (GP) --  The environmental group
Greenpeace today condemned  passage by the House of
Representatives of a revised Clean Water Act as a shameless
assault by Congress on decades of success protecting public
health and the economy.

Calling H.R. 961 the "Shuster Dirty Water Bill" after sponsor
Bud Shuster (R-PA) invited industry lobbyists help draft it,
Greenpeace U.S. Executive Director Barbara Dudley said this is
"totally unacceptable legislation that will reverse more than
20 years of progress in fighting water pollution. Today's
water pollution problems demand new policies that will prevent
dioxin contamination of our food from chlorine use, and from
agricultural chemicals."

Dudley noted the original Clean Water Act is by no means
perfect, saying it needs to be strengthened on the issues of
waste runoff, the phaseout of industrial toxic pollutants like
dioxin, and enforcement."

"The Clean Water Act needs some work, no doubt about it," said
Dudley, "but it needs the right kind of work from the right
people.  What the House gave us Tuesday night is the wrong
kind of work from the wrong people.  Just when we've finally
moved beyond the days of burning rivers, Congress votes in
favor of clean water legislation drafted by the Chemical
Manufacturers Association and the paper industry. The House
should be ashamed for passing it."

In Tuesday's Washington Post, Bud Shuster dismisses criticism
of his bill as a "Big Lie" stirred up by "liberal
environmental extremists."  In fact, on the opposite page of
the newspaper, a Post editorial calls the bill "a bad
idea...[that]...would
greatly reduce the ability of the federal government to
protect wetlands." On Sunday, a New York Times editorial
slammed the bill as "...sacrificing sound science to political
expediency and corporate lobbying," and as legislation that
would "...reverse two decades of struggle to preserve the
nation's valuable but diminishing wetlands."

Said Dudley, "The scope of this terrible legislation goes far
beyond the realm of environmentalists.  The gutting of the
Clean Water Act will go down in history as a major disaster
for the health of our children. Our kids deserve a better
future.  I just hope the Senate will realize what the House
did not."

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Barbara Dudley and other Greenpeace spokespeople are available
for comment.

CONTACT:  Rick Hind (202-319-2505), Tim Andrews
(202-319-2494), or Jonathan Hall (202-
319-2542).