Tell the EPA: Don't Gut the Clean Water Act!
A newly proposed rule would significantly limit the ability for states and tribes to protect their water quality. It seeks to remove protections against erosion and sedimentation pollution from construction, and is clearly aimed to satiate increasing greed-driven development from the fossil fuel industry. The EPA’s proposal weakens regulations on water quality certification and attacks our bedrock clean water protections that have been working for decades to restore and protect America’s waters. Fracked gas pipelines, coal plants, and other dirty energy sources devastate and pollute our waterways. Time and time again we’ve seen the damage constructing pipelines can do to rivers, streams, and wetlands and if this rule moves forward there’d be nothing states could do about it.
It would severely limit the ability of states and recognized tribes to request additional information on the negative effects of proposed projects and would limit their review of water quality impacts to only point source discharges, instead of all potential sources of pollution, including from sediment, runoff, or erosion which are a major threat to water quality nationwide.
Multiple court cases have clarified this is not the intent of the CWA section 401 and many states’ Attorneys Generals and Governors have gone on the record detailing how these changes would hurt people and sensitive ecosystems
The EPA must fully implement the Clean Water Act for the health of our communities, not roll provisions of it back for the benefit of polluting interests. It is their duty to ensure that we continue to have access to clean, safe drinking water and healthy ecosystems.The EPA must fully implement the Clean Water Act for the health of our communities, not roll provisions of it back for the benefit of polluting interests.
Take action and demand the EPA preserve the integrity of the Clean Water Act!