Advocacy Project: Letter to Elected Official

December 10, 2011

Representative Chip Cravaack

House of Representatives

508 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20500

VOTE YES ON H.R.425: Great Lakes water Protection Act

I write to you today in efforts to express my concern regarding combined, untreated sewage dumping into Lake Superior as well as the whole network of Great Lakes.  I hope to secure your support on the issue of amending the Federal Water Pollution Control Act that would establish a deadline for restricting sewage dumping in to the Great Lakes and also to fund programs that would improve wastewater discharged into the Great Lakes. 

The Great Lakes provide 30 million Americans and also many Canadians, with drinking water each day.  Due to all the pollutants that are being dumped into the lakes, sewage is having a great impact on not only the concern of our drinking water, but it is threatening the health of the lakes and upsetting the circle of life that make them a part of a working system. The lake give us a fishing as well as a multibillion dollar recreation and tourism industry bringing in Duluth, and many other cities, a great income.  This lake is a precious piece of our city and its livelihood, and thus, needs to be respected and protected. It is a resource that we can not get back easily, if at all, once it is dead.

If this bill is passed, plants will have 20 years to upgrade facilities and ensure that their processes are running correctly and to specification.  Voting in this bill will also allow fines to be placed more easily on those plants that are currently not following the regulations already in place thus bringing in more funds as well as creating a catalyst for change. By not making this bill a priority, we run the risk of more lakes hitting the tipping point of their inability to dilute the billions and billions of tons of sewage that goes into the lakes each year.  This means not only dead lakes incapable of producing food and supporting life, but also toxic and unfit to swim in. Most noticeably, this will effect our ability to get potable, safe water and running the risk of various illnesses and diseases found in other places of the world where clean water can not be obtained. These health risks, if allowed to grow, will not only have detrimental effects on us individually but collectively as well.

Clearly there will be costs involved for the public treatment works to ensure they are up to regulation and to have the appropriate treatment processes and programs available. However, I urge you to think past this opposition and look towards being a voice for support of a creative solution.  We all have water to drink now - with twenty more years of toxic sewage dumping we shorten the life of our lake safety. Looking for a solution now and planning methodically ahead while we still have time to figure out how that can be made possible, the sewage treatment plants will save themselves the potential urgent demands and institution of fines that come with urgency and panic if our water hits the tipping point of safety. Saving funding now will only allocate the loss of funds, and health, somewhere else in the future.

I want to express my sincere appreciation for your time and attention to this correspondence, as well as to this very important issue. I urge you as a citizen who appreciates the beauty and gifts of the lake as well as a voting constituent. I sincerely encourage you to consider the issues at hand and the bigger picture and encourage your vote in support of H.R.425. I would be more than pleased to assist with further information as well as hear your thoughts, understandings and concerns.

Sincerely,

Judy B.