This year marks the 35th anniversary of the Clean Water Act – the landmark legislation that protects paddlers and the rivers we enjoy from pollution impacts.  American Whitewater was honored to receive an invitation to testify before Congress to celebrate and discuss this environmental milestone.

Earlier today, American Whitewater’s executive director, Mark Singleton, presented oral and written testimony, on behalf of the Outdoor Alliance.  The Outdoor Alliance (www.outdooralliance.net) is a coalition of human-powered recreation based organizations that share a common stewardship ethic, which includes the Access Fund, American Canoe Association, American Hiking Society, American Whitewater, International Mountain Biking Association, and Winter Wildlands Alliance. 

In our testimony we focused on four main themes: water quality, water quantity, the benefits of healthy rivers, and future challenges.  A complete copy of the written testimony is available in the document section of this page.

We shared stories of rivers like West Virginia’s Cheat River and New York’s Black River that were once so polluted that water-based recreation carried significant health risks.  It is difficult to overemphasize the environmental turn-around that the Clean Water Act triggered on rivers like these.  Today, these rivers, and hundreds of other rivers once threatened or impacted by pollution are bustling with outdoor recreational use. 

We also spoke of rivers like North Carolina’s Cheoah River, that were restored from a dry riverbed serving the single purpose of hydropower generation to a vastly healthier river benefiting fish, wildlife, recreation, and a variety of businesses.  The Clean Water Act provides one of the greatest tools available for restoring water to rivers because it recognizes that water quantity is a vital component of water quality.

Few groups can speak so directly about the benefits of ample clean water in rivers.  Paddlers live these benefits every time we take to the water.  Our testimony recounts not only the personal benefits American’s receive from the simple act of floating downstream, but also the economic benefits our wet dollars provide to riverside communities.

The economic pressures that make polluting or capturing public waters beneficial for a few businesses and individuals have not gone away and never will.  The Clean Water Act has successfully protected the public’s interests in healthy rivers that support healthy communities.  Still, there are ongoing efforts to strip the Clean Water Act of its power, and we urged Congress to not be swayed by these efforts.  One such effort involves a legal challenge that has eliminated protection of most headwater streams.  The Clean Water Restoration Act of 2007 (H.R. 2421) would confirm and restore full federal protection for all our rivers and streams, and we urged Congress to support this Act.