Doug Jackson, 202.495.3045 or doug.jackson@sierraclub.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing on the Trump Administration’s illegal attempt to erode section 401 of the Clean Water Act.
The rule change would severely limit the time and tools that states and tribes have to properly evaluate the effect federally permitted projects, like pipelines and other fossil fuel facilities, would have on waterways. This could force states to approve water permit applications with insufficient data or prematurely give their authority to issue permits to the federal government. Under the proposed rules, if a state denies a water permit application for insufficiently protecting water quality, EPA could decide the state is actually “waiving” their rights and approve the permit without the state’s approval.
Similarly, the Water Quality Certification Improvement Act of 2019 (S.1087) introduced by Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), would codify this effort by Trump to weaken the Clean Water Act. Senator Barrasso's bill has been described as nothing more than a giveaway to the dirty fossil fuel producers in his home state that weakens the Clean Water Act and makes it harder for states to protect their own communities from the harmful effects of coal dust pollution.
In response, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune released the following statement:
"It’s this simple - Donald Trump and former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler are illegally attempting to roll back bedrock environmental safeguards to sell out our clean water to corporate polluters. As much as Trump and Wheler try to spin this, the very facts remain the same; the Clean Water Act is a bedrock law established to protect the rights that you and me and communities across this country have to access clean and safe drinking water.”
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said:
“By its design and construction, the Clean Water Act has for decades and decades given states a primary and principal role in ensuring clean water. The state certification process under rule 401 puts the state front and center in protecting our state’s water, people, and communities.
“What President Trump and Andrew Wheeler are seeking to do is totally upend a regulatory structure that over many decades has helped us make real progress in ensuring clean water for our communities and for our families. It seeks to effectively gut the protections of 401 and deny states the primary role they have under the Constitution and is an infringement on the sovereignty of the State of Connecticut and our sister states.”
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s Environmental Chief said:
“This proposal essentially gives the federal government a veto of state certifications. If the states impose conditions, it allows the federal government to ignore those, which basically renders 401 meaningless. It also purports to dictate the types of administrative procedures states can use in their process, meaning it may prevent the public from having meaningful opportunities to participate as well.”
New York resident Diana Strablow said:
“The Buffalo Niagara region is blessed with the Lake Erie and Niagara River watershed. In the decades since the Clean Water Act was made law, I have watched these waters evolve from the black gunk, dead fish zones of my childhood to the cleaner, safer waters of today. Yet much work still needs to be done and we do not want to see the Clean Water Act gutted.”
North Carolina resident Crystal Cavalier, President of North Carolina Democratic Party Native American Caucus said:
“The Clean Water Act rollback is one of the latest tactics by the administration to dismantle major environmental protections against pollution. I’m a citizen of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation and I reside in our homelands in the Piedmont of North Carolina. Our homelands are going to be affected by the fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline extension and it’s going to destroy any streams that it’s going to cross.”
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About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.