Nearly one year after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a murky split decision on
federal clean water protections in Rapanos v. United States, the U.S. EPA and
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced a policy guidance today that instructs
agency field staff on which waters are now protected by the Clean Water Act.
While the Bush administration publicized the policy as a clear
protection of wetlands and other waters, the policy actually will remove
decades-old Clean Water Act safeguards from streams and wetlands around the
country and adds to the confusion of what waters are covered by the Act.
With all their spinning, you’d think the Bush administration would actually
keep America’s waters clean.
This new No Protection policy further
makes the case for Congressional action to protect America’s waters. The
bipartisan Clean Water Restoration Act (H.R. 2421) clarifies that all waters in
the U.S. should continue to be safeguarded by the Clean Water Act. To clean up
the Great Lakes, Colorado River and other treasured waters, we must defend the
streams and wetlands that are their source waters.
