|
EPA, Army Corp Leave Clean Water at Risk New guidance removes Clean Water Act protections from many streams and wetlands Washington, DC: The EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers issued guidance today that threatens to reverse the nation’s progress in cleaning up its waters under the country’s fundamental clean water law. In response to last year’s Supreme Court decision in Rapanos, the agencies issued new complicated policy that leaves many small streams and wetlands without Clean Water Act protections from pollution. The agencies' guidance appears to allow unregulated pollution to be dumped into waters that have historically been protected under the Clean Water Act. While the administration claims to be in favor of protecting wetlands, this guidance leaves many of those wetlands at risk. Even the EPA and Army Corps have admitted that they have no knowledge of the extent of waters lost under this new guidance. "This guidance will most certainly mean that there will be more unregulated pollution and filling of these important waters, leaving many communities to suffer the consequences," said Navis Bermudez, Sierra Club’s Clean Water Campaign Washington Representative. "In addition, scarce agency resources will be wasted implementing this confusing guidance." As scientists have increasingly documented, small streams and wetlands perform essential roles in our environment, storing floodwater, filtering out and processing pollutants that would contaminate downstream waters, and providing critical habitat for many species of fish and other aquatic life. Safeguarding these waters from pollution is fundamentally important to keeping our drinking water sources clean and minimizing flood risks in our communities. "The inadequacy of this long-awaited guidance is all the more reason that Congress must pass the Clean Water Restoration Act of 2007 now and reaffirm its original intent to broadly protect the nation’s waters from pollution and destruction," said Bermudez. Representatives James Oberstar (D-MN), John Dingell (D-MI) and Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) along with 158 co-sponsors have introduced this bi-partisan bill in the House. In the Senate, long-time clean water leader Russ Feingold (D-WI) has announced he will introduce similar legislation soon.
### |
