WE, your Memorialists, the Members of the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Legislature of the State of Maine now assembled in the Second Regular Session, most respectfully present and petition the President of the United States and the United States Congress as follows:

WHEREAS,  the State of Maine is known for its natural beauty and vast wilderness, its plentiful lakes, ponds and rivers and its abundance of fresh, clean water; and

WHEREAS,  Maine's valuable lakes and ponds generate more than $3.5 billion in revenue annually and support approximately 50,000 jobs in the State; and

WHEREAS,  the Maine Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program is a nonprofit organization that trains, certifies and provides technical support to approximately 1,000 active volunteers, who annually gather critical data on the health of Maine lakes and ponds; and

WHEREAS,  the Maine Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program, authorized by the Maine Legislature in 1971, partners with many local, state and regional entities involved in lake and pond protection and provides essential information for assessing and protecting these bodies of water to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the United States Environmental Protection Agency; and

WHEREAS,  historically, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the United States Environmental Protection Agency, which are the primary beneficiaries of the Maine Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program, have provided funding to the program for operational costs; and

WHEREAS,  federal funding to the Maine Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program has been in the form of a competitive grant through the Maine Environmental Protection Agency, which administers federal Clean Water Act funding in Maine; and

WHEREAS,  the annual funding of the Maine Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program has made possible the assessment of the large number of lakes and ponds throughout the State by the program's volunteers; and

WHEREAS,  Congress has recently cut funding under the federal Clean Water Act and dramatically narrowed the permitted uses of the funds; and

WHEREAS,  the limitation on the use of funds for assessing water resources results in a significant loss in the ability of the State and of the Nation to determine the health of their important water resources; and

WHEREAS,   federal Clean Water Act funding is imperative for the State of Maine to protect its valuable water resources through the Maine Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program, an immensely cost-effective program that provides multiple benefits at both the state and national levels; now, therefore, be it