ADVISORY: Poor people's hearing on protecting sacred water

To highlight the critical need to protect that nation’s water resources and in particular the Ohio River, several groups will host a Water Justice Field Hearing this Saturday in Cincinnati.

Poor people and advocates from the environmental and indigenous communities from several states who rely on the water for drinking, household, agricultural, recreational and other uses will testify to the importance of safe and clean water in their lives and livelihoods.

They are expected to point out ways elected officials and community leaders can and must take immediate action to protect water and the health of the people who use it – and often fail to do so.

The Water Justice Field Hearing is sponsored by the Kentucky & Ohio Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival Ohio, the Northern Kentucky and Jefferson County chapter of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, Sierra Club Ohio Chapter, Ohio Beyond Coal, Keep Wayne Wild and the Sierra Club Miami Group.

WHEN:  Saturday, February 2, 2-5 p.m.

WHERE: Clifton United Methodist Church, 3416 Clifton Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45220

Saturday’s hearing is in preparation for the February 14 meeting of the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) at which commissions are expected to vote on whether to discontinue the agency’s role in protecting the Ohio River and its tributaries.

Last year a proposal was put forth to do away with ORSANCO’s regulatory mission which complements and at times exceeds state and federal efforts.

ORSANCO, founded in 1948, is an eight-state compact with representation from Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York, as well as from the federal government. Its mission from the beginning has been "to control and abate pollution in the Ohio River Basin." Today ORSANCO still holds standards on many of the more than 120 pollutants that it monitors stronger than either the states or the U.S. EPA.