The Trump administration today will strip Clean Water Act protections for more than half the nation’s wetlands and millions of miles of streams– numbers confirmed by the administration’s own analysis. The cuts put drinking water sources for millions of people in the U.S. at risk and jeopardize the ability to counter floods, droughts, toxic algal blooms, groundwater depletion and other worsening water issues driven by the climate crisis.
The Clean Water Act rollbacks are the latest in a series of efforts by the Trump administration to gut critical health and environmental protections, including the National Environmental Policy Act and the expected rollback of the clean car standards.
Kelsey Hillner, federal organizer for VCN, issued the following statement:
“The Dirty Water Rule is a radical reinterpretation of the Clean Water Act and yet another careless rollback from the federal government. Instead of protecting our water resources, it will put drinking water at risk by wiping out basic protections for wetlands, streams, and drinking water sources across the country. This new law ignores science, the law, and public opinion, leaving us vulnerable to corporate interests that harm the environment and our health. “