Revised Lead Bill Submitted

[Mike Clifford]

The revised bill has passed the IL Senate and now goes to the house.

The original version contained penalty provisions to anglers, whereas this one is focused on education.

 

Feel free to chime in with your thoughts on this revision!

 

Read it here:

Sen. Heather Steans

 

Filed: 3/17/2009

 

1

AMENDMENT TO SENATE BILL 1269

 

2 Amend Senate Bill 1269 by replacing

3 everything after the enacting clause with the following:

 

4 "Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Lead

5 Sinker Act.

 

6 Section 5. Educational program to discourage the use of

7 lead sinkers and lead jigs.

8 (a) Subject to appropriation, the Department of Natural

9 Resources may institute an educational program to discourage

10 the use of lead sinkers and jigs within one year after the

11 effective date of this Act. The educational program must

12 provide all of the following:

13 (1) press releases, articles, or both for distribution

14 to the news media;

15 (2) educational materials for distribution at training

16 programs sponsored by the Department; and

 

 

1 (3) any other educational tool or information that the

2 Department may find useful in its efforts to educate the

3 public about the hazards associated with the use of lead

4 products.

5 ( The purpose of the educational program required under

6 subsection (a) of this Section is to inform the public about

7 the adverse, though unintended, effects of lead on wildlife;

8 ways to reduce the introduction of lead into the environment

9 through personal action; the potential risk to public health

10 from working with lead; and the availability of alternatives to

11 lead jigs and sinkers.".

 

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus...sion=&GA=96

[Mike Clifford]

The original revision presented to me included mandatory provisions (putting a burden on the IDNR) for videos to be distributed to television outlets, a mobile display for use at public events and informational posters for kiosks and boat launches.

 

Those provisions were removed from the final draft.

 

The way it is structured now seems to be a rather reasonable bill on the surface.

 

Though I still question why it needs to be mandated that we educate about this one specific subject as opposed to more important matters related to IL natural resources, it seems well-intentioned.

[Mike G]

This is a trip. In one forum Mike Cliffford is covering "anti-lead" legislation aimed at jigs and weights. In another one Jon Graham is rolling out his new swim jig models. I guess we have freedom of speech at work.

 

Jon, may your new jigs swim long and prosper.

 

Mike, I agree that our DNR, which is already overextended, has many more important issues to deal with.