To Editor, The Dominion Post: I live near the Monongahela River and kayak on it frequently. After a period in which the river no longer supported its historic fish populations due to pollution by acid mine drainage, it now supports, again, a thriving fishery. The reason: actions of our federal Environmental Protection Agency, with other federal and state agencies, guided by the Clean Water Act of the ’60s.

I co-chaired a governor-appointed task force to develop legislation and regulations for reclaiming brownfield sites in our state, old industrial sites polluted by past practices, so they could safely be of use again. One such site was the Quality Glass site on the Mon River, north of Star City. Our USEPA invested a quarter million dollars to clean up this site for public use. We now have a public kayak launch here, at what is now the popular Van Voorhis Trailhead for the Mon River Rail Trail.

My point here is that our USEPA provides significant benefits to West Virginians and all US citizens by doing work that states could not afford, protecting our air, water and land resources from pollution, as well as cleaning up contamination when it occurs.

Therefore, we must not allow Musk-Trump to slash the funding of our USEPA! The budget just passed by the US House of Representatives cuts EPA staffing by 65%, celebrated by the entities that pollute, but not by the public who want our environment protected. This agency needs to be strengthened, not weakened. Please contact Senators Capito and Justice so the US Senate can stop this ill-advised proposal.

Mary Wimmer
Morgantown