Washington Watch: Defending Clean Water
Anti-environmental forces in Congress are making another attempt at rolling back the crucial Clean Water Rule by attaching the repeal as a rider to an energy and water spending bill. Conservation advocates are prepared to fight back. A wide-ranging coalition of 39 national, regional, and state-level conservation advocacy groups (including NCLCV) is once again sounding the alarm with letters to members of Congress.
The Clean Water Rule, adopted late in the Obama Administration, re-established protections for waters and wetlands that are at risk of destruction by development or dumping. It protects smaller streams and associated wetlands that are critical to preserving water quality and wildlife, but has routinely been the target of lawsuits by polluter interests.
As the joint conservation groups’ letter puts it, repealing the Clean Water Rule “would eliminate the vital safeguards [that it provides] for the waters that feed the drinking water of 117 million people and protect streams, headwaters, wetlands and other water bodies that serve as habitat for wildlife, reduce flooding risk, and naturally filter pollution.”
A vote to eliminate the rule “is a vote against clean water, a vote to expose even more communities to unsafe drinking water, a vote to limit the scope of the Clean Water Act, and a vote to allow polluters to destroy our precious waterways. Enough is enough: it’s time for Congress to stand up to protect clean water.”
