Protecting Your Right to Clean Water

Protecting our right to clean water is crucial for a healthy and prosperous future. Our children and grandchildren have a right to drink pristine water from the tap. We also depend on clean water for much of our recreation and for an overall strong economy.

Ric Smith is running for State Senate District 5 and is the candidate for those of us that want to protect our rights to clean water. Ric has fought for this right since the 1980s as a board member of the Flathead Lakers and a founder of the Friends of the Biological Station.

As a citizen in 1987, he demanded Proctor and Gamble ban phosphorous from detergent. Scientists and lawyers who had never been to Montana filled the valley to tell us that detergent could not clean clothes without phosphorous.

Ric fought on and appealed to Montanans' common sense. Phosphorous was soon banned by the people. Today, our clothes are cleaned just fine without phosphorous.

Ric knows that we have what most places have lost, and that if we are smart and civil in our discussions, we can reduce pollutants without adversely affecting people's quality of life.

Securing our rights to clean water must not be compromised—our lives and economy depend on it. I'm voting Ric Smith because he has tirelessly protected our rights to clean water.

Tara Allen

Bigfork