EPA Proposal Weakens Clean Water Act

by Steve Jones

When you were younger, your junior-high history teacher probably explained our three branches of government: "The legislature makesthe law, the executive branch enforces the law, and the judiciary interprets the law." But the reality is much more complicated.

It turns out that our government's executive branch has a lot of power to make the law, and interpret it as well. It can do this by adopting rules designed to amplify Congressional directives.

The Bush Administration is taking advantage of this rule-making authority by attempting to weaken the Clean Water Act. Why? Because it's a lot easier than asking Congress to amend the Act, since its many defenders in both the U.S. House and Senate don't want to limit the Act's protections.

When Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972, the nation's streams and lakes were full of sewage and industrial chemicals, and Cleveland's chemical-laden Cuyahoga River had recently caught fire. Congress passed a laudable, comprehensive law intended to protect "Waters of the United States" to the greatest extent possible.

But now the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing that "Waters of the United States" be limited to those lakes, rivers and streams that are not considered "isolated." Navigable waters used for interstate commerce are not "isolated." But if a body of water is non-navigable, ephemeral, intermittent or flows only within a particular state, it could be considered "isolated" under these proposed rules, and therefore not subject to the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act. (The EPA appears to ignore the fact that there is no reference in the Clean Water Act to "isolated waters.")

If the EPA succeeds in its attempt to weaken the Clean Water Act, federal protections for 60% of stream miles in the U.S. could be lost. An estimated 20 million acres of America's wetlands could be obliterated through dredging and filling by industrial polluters, oil, timber and mining companies, agribusiness and developers.

In Wyoming, the EPA's proposal would place many lakes, rivers and streams outside the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act, leaving only state laws to protect our water quality.

Without the Clean Water Act to ensure that the State of Wyoming provides at least minimum water quality protection levels, the consequences for public health and the environment could be disastrous. State laws could easily be changed to lower water quality protections if the Wyoming Legislature decided to seize the opportunity. We could easily see increased water pollution, reduced groundwater supplies and the loss of enormous amounts of critical wildlife habitat. S

The EPA's public comment period ends April 16. Your comments are desperately needed to help protect Wyoming's precious water resources. For more information, go to the Clean Water Network's website at www.cwn.org and click on "Scope of the Clean Water Act." You can submit your comments electronically on EPA's web site at www.cascade.epa.gov/RightSite/formexec

You can also submit comments by mail to:
Water Docket
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Mailcode 4101T
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20460
Attention: Docket ID No. OW-2002-0050