Moves to Rescind Contested Water Pollution Regulation.
The Trump administration on Tuesday took a major legal step toward repealing a bitterly contested Obama-era regulation designed to limit pollution in about 60 percent of the nation’s bodies of water.
But farmers, ranchers and real estate developers oppose it as an infringement on their property rights.
President Trump signed an executive order in February directing Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, to begin the legal process for rolling back the water rule, calling it “one of the worst examples of federal regulation.” On Tuesday, Mr. Pruitt released a 42-page proposal to rescind the rule.
Publication of the plan is the first step in a lengthy legal process that the Trump administration must undertake to eventually enact a new regulation, one that is expected to have far fewer restrictions and pollution protections.
“This proposal strikes directly at public health,” said Rhea Suh, the president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group.
“It would strip out needed protections for the streams that feed drinking water sources for one in every three Americans.
Clean water is too important for that.
“The Wotus rule would have put backyard ponds, puddles and prairie pot holes under Washington’s control,” he said in a statement.
“I applaud the Trump administration for working to remove this indefensible regulation.