Action Alert: Protect Your FISHING!

Sunday, September 05, 2010

Protect Your FISHING! You can take action on this alert by reading the information below and following the directions at the bottom. Protect your family, economic future, and your fishing before someone pumps water from your river basin for someone else’s economic benefit. Ask your legislator to co-sponsor and support the River Basin Protection Act of 2010 (HB 1301 & SB 462). That’s right. If interbasin transfers of water from one river basin to another are not regulated or managed in a responsible way for all Georgians, you might witness rivers near your home run slower, lower and with poorer fishing. How can we practice our Georgia Constitutional Right to Fish if the very water we depend on is threatened? Easy, we ask our state legislators to pass common sense, reasonable interbasin transfer legislation that protects all river basins. For example, some people want to transfer millions of gallons of water from the Savannah River to the Chattahoochee River for more people or businesses to move to the Metro Atlanta area. Some claim that “Atlanta is running out of water” and that others in the state should send “them” more water. There is pending federal action concerning the use of Lake Lanier, but “Atlanta” is not running out of water. The fact is that we, as Georgians, know simple common sense laws of nature require water to flow within the natural confines of our 14 major river basins. Although existing incidental interbasin transfers happen when we withdraw water for drinking water and discharge treated wastewater, we should still be conservative by nature and use the water that falls within our river basins more efficiently. When we “live within our means”, we don’t over spend our water budget that might damage either our downstream neighbors or negatively impact the fish we like to catch and eat. We need to ask our state leaders to protect our future economic potential by co-sponsoring and passing the River Basin Protection Act. This will not completely prohibit or stop interbasin transfers. It does create a way for the state to better manage water that assures everyone that their rivers, their businesses, their families, their communities and their fishing will be protected. Currently there are more than 65 co-sponsors in the House and over 20 in the Senate, of common sense interbasin transfer management legislation known as the River Basin Protection Act of 2010. The River Basin Protection Act is flexible and manageable. This legislation will help protect your community, your family, your fishing, the future of your local economy and our downstream neighbors. We are not promoting a complete and total ban on water transfers, but we do support being responsible with what nature and the good Lord provides us as it falls and flows through our rivers. Ask your Representatives and Senators to support and co-sponsor common sense water management for all Georgians. Ask them to support Senator Jim Butterworth and the House Agriculture Chairman, Tom McCall by signing on to their sensible legislation…the River Basin Protection Act of 2010 (HB 1301 and SB 462). Send them the message below. Your message will be sent to each of the following targets: Your State Representative Your State Senator A sample message appears below, which you may edit before sending. Support the River Basin Protection Act of 2010 (HB 1301 and SB 462) Dear Representative, As a sportsman living in your district, I want you to protect the economic future of my family and my community by co-sponsoring the River Basin Protection Act of 2010 (HB 1301 and SB 462). This legislation is authored by the House Agriculture Committee Chairman, Representative Tom McCall of Elberton and State Senator Jim Butterworth of Cornelia. More than 65 House members and more than 20 Senators have already signed on with their support. If you have already co-sponsored this effort, THANK YOU! If not, I want you to sign on today! By doing so you will send a clear message to me and my neighbors that you want to protect the future economic potential of my family, our upstream and downstream neighbors and our Constitutional Right to Fish. All these things depend on the water flowing through our respective river basins. Be assured this bill will not stop or prevent interbasin transfers from occurring. The River Basin Protection Act of 2010 will simply provide assurances to all Georgians that their economic futures will not be put in jeopardy, pumped away into another river, or simply pumped into the Metro Atlanta region providing economic advantage of one community over another. It is time for all of Georgia to experience economic prosperity, including Atlanta and other metropolitan areas of Georgia, but in a sensible and reasonable way. Providing assurances that sending and receiving river basins will be protected are critically important to the future of millions of Georgians…sign on today! Call Chairman McCall or Senator Butterworth to lend your support for me and my family by co-sponsoring this important water protection measure. Water is and should remain a public resource, one that my family and I can count on for years to come. Protect my family, our future, our fishing and our community. Co-sponsor with Chairman Tom McCall in the House or Jim Butterworth in the Senate to assure me that you want to protect the most vital natural resource on which our future depends. As a Georgia sportsman I appreciate your dedication to public service and good governance. Please provide the leadership necessary to pass the River Basin Protection Act…protect me, my family and our future. Sincerely, Your name and address here This Action Alert Campaign is Closed.

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