EPA Proposes Biggest Step for Clean Water in a Decade

Environment Rhode Island

Providence – Today, in the biggest step forward for clean water in more than a decade, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a rule to close loopholes in the Clean Water Act that leave 54% of Rhode Island’s streams and hundreds of acres of wetlands at risk of unchecked pollution and development.

“With Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island’s drinking water at risk, we’re thrilled to see the EPA moving forward to protect our waterways,” said Channing Jones, Campaign Director with Environment Rhode Island. “Whether we’re swimming in the Bay, fishing in our favorite stream, or just drinking the water that comes from our tap, we need Rhode Island’s waterways to be clean and protected.”

This rulemaking comes after a decade of uncertainty over the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act, following polluter-led Supreme Court challenges in 2001 and 2006. The rule, which could be finalized as soon as later this year, would restore Clean Water Act protections to many of Rhode Island’s wetlands and more than half of Rhode Island’s streams.

“This rule would protect the streams and wetlands that filter and feed into waterways like Narragansett Bay and drinking water sources like the Scituate Reservoir,” said Jones. “If we don’t protect these critical waters, we can’t ensure that any of our waterways are fully protected.”

With so much at stake, Environment Rhode Island and its sister groups across the country have waged an intensive multi-year campaign to restore these Clean Water Act protections – including more than 1 million face-to-face conversations with people across the country, and rallying hundreds of local elected officials, farmers, and small business owners to call on the Obama administration to take action.  

In September 2013, the EPA announced it was moving forward with the rulemaking to restore Clean Water Act protections to waterways throughout Rhode Island and across the country. It simultaneously released a draft science report on the connection between smaller streams and wetlands and downstream waters, which makes the scientific case for the rulemaking. Members of the public submitted more than 150,000 public comments in support of the report’s findings that these waterways merit protection under the law.

Many of the nation’s biggest polluters are already weighing in against the rulemaking, spreading misinformation about the rule’s potential impacts. While the EPA has announced the rule will preserve all existing Clean Water Act exemptions for the agricultural sector, the American Farm Bureau is insisting that the rulemaking is “a land grab” by the EPA and cause for “battle.” The American Farm Bureau Federation is one of 28 members of the Waters Advocacy Coalition, an industry group formed to lobby against clean water protections.

“When finalized, this rule would be the biggest step forward for clean water more than a decade,” said Jones. “Thank you, Administrator Gina McCarthy and the EPA for fighting to protect clean water. Now let’s get the job done.”