Subject: March 14, 1999 Bluestem Network Action Alert

The Bluestem Network Action Alert as of March 14, 1999, is as follows:

Please make the following two phone calls:

For your first phone call, please contact your Illinois State Representative's office today and urge him or her to SUPPORT House Bill 1690.

For your second phone call, please contact your Illinois State Senator's office and urge him or her to SUPPORT Senate Bill 948.

House Bill 1690 and Senate Bill 948 are identical bills that would provide new funding to clean up polluted rivers and lakes by establishing a water pollution permit fee. Both bills are expected to be considered by the Illinois House and Illinois Senate within the next few weeks.

You can reach both your Illinois State Rep and Illinois State Senator's office by calling the Illinois State Capitol switchboard during business hours at 217-782-2000 and asking to be transferred to your Illinois State Representative or Illinois State Senator's office.

For information on the names of your Illinois State Representative and Illinois State Senator and how to make a local phone call to your legislators' home district offices, please check out our Political Contacts page.

This ends the Bluestem Network Action Alert.

What follows is the detailed explanation which explains the background behind this action alert.

After reading the detailed explanation of this action alert, if you need additional clarification, please call the Illinois Chapter Office of the Sierra Club at 312-251-1680.

Currently in Illinois, there are over 5,000 industries, sewage treatment plants, and other facilities that have a permit from the Illinois EPA to dump sewage into Illinois' rivers, lakes, and streams. These permits are required by the federal Clean Water Act for any activity which results in the discharge of water pollution. These permit applications are processed by state employees, at taxpayer expense, without any cost to the polluter.

While licenses to pollute the water in Illinois are absolutely free, 39 other states charge a fee for these permits. We believe establishing a fee for water pollution permits, as proposed in HB 1690, sponsored by Illinois State Representative Andrea Moore (R-Libertyville), and SB 948, sponsored by Illinois State Sen. Lisa Madigan (D-Chicago), serves three important objectives:

Objective One:

Make Polluters Pay Their Own Way.

When state employees spend time writing licenses to pollute for industries and sewage treatment plants, they are using resources that could be used to clean up our rivers, lakes, and streams. Most other states require dischargers to pay for this service, rather than the taxpayers. Illinois EPA estimates that each year $3-5 million dollars of public funds are spent providing these services to dischargers.

Objective Two:

Raise Funds For Waterway Cleanup.

Illnois EPA has identified over 300 rivers, lakes, and streams across Illinois that are impaired by pollution and in need of cleanup. These waterways are in need of cleanup plans that would determine where the pollution is coming from, and how to reduce it. Unfortunately, the IEPA at best hopes to complete cleanup plans for only twelve of these waterways in the next two years due to inadequate resources. At that pace, it would be decades before all the needed cleanup plans are complete. HB 1690 and SB 948 would provide the needed funding to deliver clean water faster.

Objective Three:

Provide an Incentive to Reduce Pollution.

HB 1690 and SB 948 would make the fee for a pollution permit based on the volume of the discharge, and on whether or not it contains toxic chemicals. This would provide a financial incentive for industries to dump less pollution into our waterways, and to make their discharge less toxic.

HB 1690 and SB 948 would create a system of fees for water pollution permits that is very similar to those charged by our neighbor states, Indiana, Missouri, and Kentucky. All of our neighbors charge at least some fee for water pollution permits. A nominal permit application fee would be established, to be paid once every five years, and an additional annual fee that would be based on the volume and toxicity of the discharge. For example, an industry that is discharging ten million gallons per day of water that contains one or more toxic chemicals would pay much more than a small sewage treatment plant that is discharging a fraction of that amount with no toxic chemicals. Such a system has worked well for our neighbor states.

Please contact your legislators TODAY. The chemical, oil, and utility companies are putting the pressure on to keep water pollution free in Illinois.

This concludes the detailed explanation for the March 14, 1999 Bluestem Network

Action Alert.