The Trump Administration has been a complete circus. It has been a ride that has seen riots, jubilation, and sorrow on any given day depending on who you talk to. One thing is for certain however; he is doing exactly what he said he would do.

My point in this column is not to start an argument over who should have won or my opinion on the man, what I want to talk about is something that affects all of us gravely.

On Thursday, Feb. 16, Donald J. Trump signed into action a piece of legislation that is possibly the most regressive bit of legislation that has come across the desk of a president in the past decade. That piece of legislation is called the Congressional Review Act resolution, and it should anger you no matter what you political aligning.

The bill allows for the dumping of dangerous coal ash into freshwater rivers and streams. While it does other things, it seems like lawmakers slid that little aspect of the bill under the rug at the last minute, and it slipped through. 

We as a nation have come so far in our understanding of environmental protection that it is nearly impossible for me to conceptualize anyone justifying polluting any freshwater environments for any reason other than greed.

As a resident of Bainbridge, a new one at that, one of the best parts of living here is the river. I wake up each morning and I put my dog in my car and drive down to the river for a walk before I go to work. I take in the scenery, and I think about how much fun it must be to be able to take a boat out on the water in the summer.

Imagine if that were to be tarnished.

Imagine if it were to be polluted.

I certainly do not agree with everything Barack Obama did. I personally believe the government should be as small as possible, and the states make their decisions, but to be fair the Obama Administration did an excellent job of putting the environment first. We cannot overstate how important it is to cherish our national lands and our waterways.

The fact that this bill even made it through the House and Senate baffles and saddens me, but I hope that we can realize our mistake in this before it is catastrophically to late, before irreversible damage has been done to our lands. After all, “this land was made for you and me.”

Not for pollution from industries.