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Sample Letter
SB 1477
Customize this letter and send it to your Assembly Member.
The Honorable (First and Last Name)
State Capitol, Room # _______
Sacramento, CA 95814
(Today's Date), 2004
Dear Assembly Member __________,
As a resident of California and your constituent, I urge you to support Senate Bill 1477, authored by Senator Byron Sher, which would ensure state protections for non-navigable, intrastate waters in order to maintain the drinking water quality, wildlife habitat, pollution and flood control services provided by those waters.
For more than 30 years, the federal Clean Water Act has protected our nation's waters and wetlands from unregulated pollution, development and destruction. In 2001, however, the Bush Administration dropped federal protection for many of these waters including more than half of California's wetlands. The administration's actions have reversed the "no net loss" wetlands policy that has been the foundation for wetland protection in the United States for over a decade. Even with a "no net loss" policy, the nation has lost an average of 60,000 acres of wetlands every year.
Non-navigable waters and wetlands are critically important for numerous reasons including: sourcing of some or all of drinking water more than half of Californians; filtering many harmful pollutants from the state's drinking water; saving millions of dollars worth of flood and erosion control; providing habitat for millions of native and migratory bird species; and serving serve as family recreational areas.
Protection of clean water ranks high in public importance, with overwhelming support from Californians across party lines. SB 1477 is a sensible solution to protect our valuable wetlands from destruction and over-development. Please support SB 1477 in committee and on the floor.
Sincerely,
(Your Name)
