Woods & Wetlands Alert Isolated Wetlands March 8th, 2002

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ALERT

Fix the Nix! Save Illinois Wetlands

HELP PROTECT WETLANDS: Pass IL House Bill 6013

Please Contact your IL State Representative and urge him or her to COSPONSOR the Illinois Wetland Protection Act - House Bill 6013. Then contact your IL Senator and ask him or her to work with your Representative to pass this legislation this session.

You can find out who your State Representative and Senator are and how to contact them at http://www.elections.state.il.us/DLS/Pages/DLSAddressCrit.asp

There are four ways you can contact your Representative and Senator! Do one - or DO ALL FOUR!

1. Give Them A Call!

Call their local district office, or their Springfield office and just leave a message saying "I urge you to co-sponsor House Bill 6013" on their voice mail or with their secretary. Leave your name and address so they know that you live in their district. You can call both at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield at 217-782-2000. Ask for your legislator by name.

2. Write Your Own Letter!

A personal note from you is very compelling to your legislator. Send your letter to the Springfield address by mail or fax. You can use the attached fact sheets if you want to include detailed information, but the letter does not have to be long.

For example:
 

Dear Representative Marsh / Senator Fen:

I am writing to urge you to co-sponsor House Bill 6013, the Illinois Wetland Protection Act. Please work with my Senator Fen / Representative Marsh to pass this legislation this session.

Wetlands are critical for wildlife, flood control and water purification. We have already lost 85% of Illinois' original wetlands and now the recent Supreme Court decision jeopardizes many of the remaining ones. HB 6013 will restore protection for these vulnerable areas by establishing a state wetland permit program.

I hope you can support HB 6013, and look forward to hearing your response.

Sincerely,

Your Name

Address

3. Visit Your Legislator's Local Office

If you have time, the most effective thing you can do is to make an appointment with your legislator at their local office to explain the issue and make a personal appeal for their support.

Call Doug Chien or Jack Darin at Sierra Club at 312-251-1680 to find out more and possibly to be linked up with others in your area that might attend with you.

4. Come with us on our April 3, 2002 Springfield Lobby Day!

If you’d like to take your lobbying a step further, take a trip to Springfield with other members for Sierra Club Lobby Day! In the company of experienced lobbyists, you will get a chance to talk to your elected officials face-to-face about HB 6013 and wetlands protection. Call Chapter Executive Director, Jack Darin, at 312-251-1680 or email to jack.darin@sierraclub.org for logistical information about the Lobby Day.

BACKGROUND

The Problem

The U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding the Bartlett Balefill in 2000 had a devastating kicker. The Court not only sided with the Solid Waste Association of Northern Cook County, which asserted that it could build a landfill in a wetland, it also removed protection from waterways that are not navigable.

That decision puts at severe risk millions of acres of isolated marshes, fens, bogs, swamps and seeps in America that are not connected to rivers and streams used for boating or shipping.

The threat to isolated wetlands in Illinois is very real.

Illinois Chapter Executive Director, Jack Darin, filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Northern Illinois District of the Army Corps of Engineers and found that the Corps made more than 200 declarations of no jurisdiction for just the six-county area in northeastern Illinois in the first seven months after the Bartlet Balefill/SWANCC decision.

In plain English, that means that the Army Corps said it could not/would not stop development on those 200 properties where someone bothered to ask for an opinion. Undoubtedly, many thousands of other projects are being contemplated where the builder won’t bother to seek a Corp opinion.

What’s going on downstate in Illinois with regard to wetlands destruction is unclear. The St. Louis District of the Army Corps did not respond to Sierra Club’s Freedom of Information Act request within the legal deadline. The Rock Island District of the Army Corps said it did not receive any requests for jurisdictional decisions regarding isolated wetlands.

Solution

We worked with our endorsed legislator Karen May to help write HB 6013. It reestablishes protection for Illinois’ isolated wetlands by requiring that developers obtain a permit from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources before developing a wetland. The bill also requires that developers who are granted a permit for wetland development mitigate that damage elsewhere to ensure that there is no net loss of wetlands in the state.

The bill allows permit jurisdiction to be passed to Illinois counties and their Stormwater Management Committees to keep control over wetlands development in local hands. The bill’s authors also were careful to make sure that appropriate farming activities are permitted, calming fears of most of Illinois’ farmers that new wetlands protections would have an impact on them.

Deadline for responding:

The IL legislature is in session now, and this bill could come to the floor any time. Please take action by Friday, March, 15, 2001.

If you would like to read the text of the bill, contact Evan at mailto:auk@interaccess.com . It's interesting! But please don't delay, call your legislators now!

Join and Access this ALERTS list and our ISSUES discussion list using the website interfaces:
http://lists.sierraclub.org/archives/il-wwg-alerts.html and
http://lists.sierraclub.org/archives/il-wwg-issues.html

Changing your e-mail address? Use these handy websites to resubscribe using your new address.

Join the Illinois Sierra Club Action Network!
http://illinois.sierraclub.org/iscan/
You will receive periodic e-mails directing you to a website that helps you compose and send a fax to your legislator.
If you've already signed up for ISCAN, take action at http://illinois.sierraclub.org/iscan/act.html

Thanks for helping to protect our shared environment!
 

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Send all comments concerning this action alert to the attention of Evan Craig at auk@interaccess.com or call 847-680-6437.

Every call counts.