LWVCT Supports Strategies to Reduce Storm Water Pollution HB 7370 and Development Impacts to Wetlands HB 7343 3/14/07
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CGA Environment Committee Public Hearing March 14,2007Support for:
RB 7370 An Act Encouraging Innovative Solutions To Reduce RB 7343 AAC Riparian Corridors Comments submitted by Cheryl Dunson, VP Public Issues
The League of Women Voters of Connecticut, a statewide organization with over 2400 members, has long recognized that our water resources should not be taken for granted. We adopted a strong position in support of policies and programs that protect our state’s inland wetlands and watercourses and watershed lands and based upon this longstanding position, the League urges your support for RB 7343 AAC Riparian Corridors and RB 7370 An Act Encouraging Innovative Solutions To Reduce Storm Water Pollution.
According to research conducted by the Trust for Public Land, 33% of watershed lands are owned by the state or local governments or water utilities and 19% is already developed for industrial, residential or agricultural purposes. That leaves nearly half of watershed lands, or more than 250,000 acres, without protection and susceptible to development. (Protecting Land to Safeguard Connecticut’s Drinking Water. Trust for Public Land, 2003.) Although development is inevitable, the damage to the environment need not be. The League supports RB 7343 AAC Riparian Corridors because it proposes additional municipal oversight on development proposals within 200 feet of a stream or river flowing into a drinking water reservoir. Minimizing impacts to lands that surround and purify our drinking water is essential for maintaining a safe and secure drinking water supply. The Leagues urges your support for RB 7343 AAC Riparian Corridors.
The US Environmental Protection Agency has identified polluted storm water runoff from developed lands, a.k.a. nonpoint source pollution, as the number one threat to water quality. Storm water pollution occurs whenever a rainstorm or melting snow washes over surfaces such as roads, roofs, driveways and construction sites, and picks up mud, sand, oils, animal waste, pesticide, road salts, and lawn fertilizers. This polluted storm water is then carried via storm drains into our drinking water reservoirs, rivers, and streams and ultimately into Long Island Sound. RB 7370 proposes establishing a storm water account within the Clean Water Fund in order to develop a grant program to advance innovative municipal strategies to control and abate storm water pollution.
As the old saying goes “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” The League of Women Voters of Connecticut urges your support for RB 7343 AAC Riparian Corridors and RB 7370 An Act Encouraging Innovative Solutions To Reduce Storm Water Pollution.
League of Women Voters of Connecticut · 1890 Dixwell Avenue Hamden, CT 06514 · 203/288-7996
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