Close loopholes in Clean Water Act

By Jesse Whitfield

For many Augusta County locals, the best summer memories include fishing trips to South River for a prized stripe bass. Since the DuPont mercury toxic spill, the life around the river is too poisoned for anything but catch and release.

There is another threat to our prized fishing stock, and it has been in existence for over 10 years. Pollution from factory farms chokes out our prized stripe bass stocks, suppressing their population level’s potential. This is a price those polluters are making us pay to subsidize their profit.

Cleaner waters mean more prized fish and jobs for tourists and locals. Major loopholes in the Clean Water Act give a pass to the culprits costing us jobs and money. We need to stop this threat to our water.

Senator Warner has a chance to restore our local communities by stopping the polluters’ damage. Each of us in Virginia needs to call on Senator Warner to protect our State’s natural resources and economy through voting “no” on dirty water.