Letters: Regarding WOTUS
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To the editor:
I would like to address Sen. Ernst’s letter in the Sentinel-News on March 23, 2023. There needs to be some clarification on the WOTUS she was addressing. It stands for Waters of the United States. It is designed to control the quality of water in rivers and lakes from pollution. This is not a Republican or Democratic issue. The term “Waters of the U.S.’’ appears in the Federal Clean Water Act of 1972 that empowers the EPA and the Army Corp of Engineers with protecting those waters.
This act has kept 700 billion pounds of pollution out of our water annually, has slowed the rate of wetland loss and doubled the number of waters that are safe for fishing and swimming. The levels of metal in our rivers like lead have declined dramatically.
The quality of our water is important to our citizens, our wildlife and our land. We have the Mississippi, Missouri, and the Des Moines Rivers that cross Iowa, the Great Lakes along with a number of other lakes in Iowa which provide jobs for industry and recreation.To maintain these resources is of value to all Iowans. We have a responsibility to be good stewards of our land and water ways for future generations.
For more information you can do a computer search on “What is WOTUS?”
Shirley Mori Sorenson,
West Des Moines
