At a budget hearing this morning Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt announced that the Trump administration would issue a proposed rulemaking action today.
What Does It Mean for a Water Body to Be Protected by the Clean Water Act?
For example: Wastewater dischargers and sewage plants may not dump into such waters without pollution-limiting permits; Facilities storing significant amounts of oil near covered waters must develop oil spill prevention and response plans; States must identify and prepare plans to clean up protected waters that don’t meet state water quality standards; Industrial and commercial developers ordinarily must obtain approval before discharging solid material into protected waters, destroying valuable wetlands and degrading lakes and streams, and these dischargers sometimes must mitigate their impact by creating, preserving, or enhancing other water resources; Nobody may discharge “any radiological, chemical, or biological warfare agent, any high-level radioactive waste, or any medical waste” into covered waters; and Entities disposing sewage sludge that could pollute such waters must abide by pollution control standards.
How Was the Clean Water Rule Developed?
The agencies then developed a rule that relies on this strong scientific basis and specifies that the Clean Water Act can protect those kinds of waters that have meaningful water quality impacts downstream.
During the comment period, EPA met with more than 400 stakeholders and received more than one million comments, 87% of which were supportive of the rule.
The agencies, led by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, have started planning actions that would do just that.
They are racing to repeal the rule before a court can independently review its basis in science and the law.
Ultimately, the Administration’s clean water rollback plan means that fewer streams, wetlands, and other waters would be protected by the Clean Water Act’s oil spill prevention program, its requirement to develop cleanup blueprints for polluted waters, its pollution control standards for industrial dischargers, its protections against burying streams and wetlands, and numerous other safeguards.
It means more pollution to the lakes and streams we rely on for drinking water supply or for fishing and swimming, and a green light for the rampant destruction of wetlands that prevent dangerous flooding.