Political Quotes

“My colleague, John Dingell and I have another amendment that strikes, in this case, section 112 of this bill because section 112 would prevent the Corps of Engineers from updating regulationsdefining the terms ``fill material'' or ``discharge of fill material'' for the purposes of the Clean Water Act. Presently, the Army Corps issues a section 404 permit if the ``fill material'' discharged into a water body raises the bottom elevation of that water body or converts an area to dry land. When Congress first enacted the Clean Water Act, and that's why Mr. Dingell is so concerned about this, the 404 permit process was supposed to be used for certain construction projects, like bridges and roads, where raising the bottom elevation of a water body or converting an area into dry land was simply unavoidable. But then, some clever attorneys in the George W. Bush administration found a way to allow mining waste to be dumped into rivers and streams without a rigorous environmental review process.…”