HB 162 AND SB 71 THREATEN ALABAMA'S ABILITY TO PROTECT OUR WATER, AIR & SOIL QUALITY

Tell Your State Reps (House Member and State Senator) to vote NO on HB 162 / SB 71!

 

THE INSIDE SCOOP ON WHY THIS BILL IS BEING INTRODUCED

Last year, health, safety and environmental groups petitioned the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) to decrease the amount of toxins that polluters could discharge into our waterways based on recent scientific data. The Environmental Management Committee actually instructed ADEM to begin rulemaking to create standards more protective of human health.

WHAT TO SAY TO YOUR LEGISLATOR ABOUT THIS BILL:

• This bill will endanger our families. It keeps state agencies from creating science-based standards for toxic substances such as Arsenic, Cyanide, and Forever Chemicals (PFAS) and allows Washington D.C. to dictate what is best for Alabama and the health of our families.
• This bill will increase the cost of treating drinking water. Drinking water utilities and customers will have to pay the price of cleaning up our drinking water. If ADEM can’t regulate harmful chemicals, municipal water suppliers and customers will be forced to foot the bill in maintaining federally required drinking water standards for Forever Chemicals.
• This bill creates an impossible burden for state agencies to create standards for toxic substances. It requires evidence to prove a chemical is harmful that typically doesn’t exist because state agencies that have limited resources must show “a direct causal link” to bodily harm in order to protect citizens and prohibits standards based on “increased risk of disease.” This is out of step with science—all public health science is based on risk.
• The bill will require state agencies to wait until animals or people are dying or sick from toxic exposure before they are allowed to adopt rules about dangerous chemicals or substances.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR ALABAMIANS?

If these bills pass, they would weaken the state's ability to implement the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act. They would hamper the state’s ability to protect our streams from sediment and runoff, eliminate any potential to regulate the vast majority of emerging contaminants like PFAS, and prevent the state from setting its own water quality criteria to protect our environment, our economy, and Alabamians' health.

THE CLEAN WATER ACT

The Clean Water Act gave states the authority to enact laws that are more protective of water quality than these federal minimums because Congress recognized that each state has its own unique challenges and assets. Nowhere is this truer than in Alabama, the most aquatically biodiverse state in the nation. 

THE CLEAN AIR ACT
The Clean Air Act explicitly allows states to adopt alternative pollution standards or limitations and may also establish rules more stringent than the federal rules. 42 U.S.C. § 7416. This allows states to set their own rules that suit their unique circumstances. If some legislators have their way, Alabama will no longer have that ability.

Please read and send the letter below, and add your own personal comments if you can!

We will be in touch about future actions you can take to ensure these bills DO NOT PASS,

for the health of Alabama's water, air, and soil.