New NRDC TV Spot Blasts White House for Threatening Clean Water Act

Landmark Water Law Turns 30 on Friday; Ad Localized for Seven Cities

NEW YORK (October 16, 2002) -- A new TV spot by a national environmental organization is charging that the Bush administration is trying to cripple one of the most successful and popular environmental laws on the 30th anniversary of its passage. According to NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), the administration is trying to weaken the Clean Water Act, a law that has enjoyed bipartisan political support since it was enacted. (See below for Thursday satellite feed information.)

The 30-second spot, created by the San Francisco-based Underground Ads with NRDC, will be running Thursday, October 17, through Sunday, October 20, in Baltimore; Des Moines; Manchester, N.H.; Portland, Ore.; Raleigh, St. Louis; and Washington, D.C. The ad budget was approximately $150,000.

The spot, "The Greatest Threat" is localized for each of the markets in which it will run. In Baltimore and Washington, D.C., the ad mentions the Chesapeake Bay; in Des Moines, Three Mile Lake; in Manchester, N.H., the Pemigewasset River; in Portland, Ore., the Columbia River; in Raleigh, the Albemarle-Pamlico Sound; and in St. Louis, the Mississippi River. NRDC says all of waterways would be threatened by Bush administration proposals to weaken the Clean Water Act.

NRDC also is running an ad on the op-ed page of the New York Times on Friday, October 18, the 30th anniversary of the passage of the act. Both the TV spot and the ad point out that the Clean Water Act was passed with overwhelmingly bipartisan support.

"Our goal here is to remind people that protecting our environment used to be a bipartisan concern, and that Republicans and Democrats came together to pass the Clean Water Act 30 years ago," said Alan Metrick, NRDC's director of communications.

The spot and the print ad allude to the fact that the Bush administration already has made it legal for coal companies to dump fill from blown-up mountains into streams; rejected the first President Bush's policy of ensuring no net loss of wetlands; withdrawn proposed rules that would have reduced raw sewage discharges; and dropped proposals to cut stormwater pollution from new development. Now the administration is considering proposals that would limit the scope of the Clean Water Act, leaving entire classes of waterways unprotected.

The ad is available via satellite on Thursday, October 17. The satellite news feed coordinates are:
TIME: 13:30 ET - 13:45 ET, Thursday, October 17
SATELLITE: Telstar 6, Transp.15
SATELLITE TYPE: C-Band
DOWNLINK FREQUENCY: 4000
DOWNLINK POLARITY: Vertical
ORBITAL POSITION: 93 degrees W
AUDIO: 6.2, 6.8

The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, non-profit organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in 1970, NRDC has more than 500,000 members nationwide, served from offices in New York, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Related NRDC Pages
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Clean Water at Risk