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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Language 'Muddies' Clean Water Protection For New Mexico

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Tuesday, July 31, 2007   

A pair of bills currently before Congress aim to make sure Clean Water Act protections don't "run dry" in New Mexico. Recent Supreme Court decisions have watered down the language of the act, limiting federal protection to "navigable waters" only. State Environment Secretary Ron Curry testified before Congress earlier this month. He says the government's decision to enforce the ruling leaves the vast majority of New Mexico's waters vulnerable to pollution.

"On some days you can actually walk across the Rio Grande, and so if you can walk across the Rio Grande, you sure can't float a boat on it, and you sure can't navigate on it."

The Clean Water Restoration Act was introduced in the Senate last week. The bill will remove the word "navigable" from the act, restoring federal protections to all waters.

Curry says the Clean Water Restoration Act will ensure that New Mexico's countless arroyos, playa lakes and closed basin rivers like the Mimbres and Tularosa are safeguarded for the future.

"We're trying to make sure that we don't lose the ability to protect closed basins and our wetlands that we have here because they are a real source for migratory birds."

Curry estimates that by using "navigable waters" as the standard for federal protection, 90 percent of New Mexico's waters are at risk. Supreme Court rulings in 2001 and 2006 established the navigable waters standard. It said all other waters are subject to a case by case evaluation.



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