Action Alerts

Defend our right to clean water

What's At Stake

The Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency Supreme Court ruling eviscerated the Clean Water Act and removed protections for over 118 million acres of wetlands and a staggering but yet-to-be-determined number of streams. It dealt a significant blow to water everywhere, and to an important environmental safeguard. Join us in the fight to defend our waters and preserve our ecosystems. Together, we can make a difference. 

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Despite the challenges posed by the Sackett decision, there is cause for hope as advocates across the country rally to defend our waters. In states like Colorado, Illinois, and New Mexico, grassroots coalitions are making strides in advancing wetland protections through legislative action and community engagement. 

However, challenges persist as states like North Carolina and Indiana enact legislation that weakens water protections, and legal battles over water rights continue in places like Georgia. Moreover, industries are exploiting the Sackett ruling to pollute and destroy wetlands for profit, underscoring the urgency of our advocacy efforts. 

Despite these obstacles, public support for water protection remains strong. Most of the country has a favorable opinion of the Clean Water Act, and ninety-four percent of people say that protecting the water in our nation’s lakes, streams, and rivers is important. This widespread support underscores the opportunity for progress and mobilization. 

Congress, having the people’s backing, needs to address the legal ramifications of the Sackett decision, and must enact meaningful reforms to protect our waters. With unwavering commitment and grassroots advocacy, we can secure a healthier, more sustainable future for generations to come. 

Everglades National Park is one of America’s great places. The vast South Florida marsh is the largest continuous stand of sawgrass prairie left in North America and is the continent’s most significant tropical bird breeding ground.
Everglades National Park is one of America’s great places. The vast South Florida marsh is the largest continuous stand of sawgrass prairie left in North America and is the continent’s most significant tropical bird breeding ground. (Brian Lasenby / Shutterstock)

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Your Actions Matter

Your messages make a difference, even if we have leaders who don't want to listen. Here's why.

You level the playing field.

Elected officials pay attention when they see that we are paying attention. Read more.

They may be hearing from industry lobbyists left and right, but hearing the stories of their constituents — that’s your power.

Our legislators serve at the pleasure of the people who gave them their job — you.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. When you contact your elected official, you’re putting a face and a name on an issue.

Whether or not you voted for them, they work for you, for the duration of their term.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. (Find your local, state, and federal elected officials.)

Your action is with us in court.

If a federal agency finalizes a harmful action, the record of public comments provides a basis for bringing them into court. Read more.

Throughout each of the public comment periods we alert you to, Earthjustice’s attorneys are researching and writing in-depth, technical comments to submit — detailing how the regulation could and should be stronger to protect the environment, our communities, and our planet.

We need you to join us — your specific experiences, knowledge, and voice are crucial to add to the Administrative Record through the comment periods.

Lawsuits we file that challenge weak or harmful federal regulations rely on what was submitted during the comment period. The court can only look at documents that are in the Administrative Record — including the public comments — to decide if the agency did something improper.

Your actions aid our litigation. Taking action and submitting comments during a comment period is substantively important.

It’s the law.

Federal agencies must pause what they’re doing and ask for — and consider — your comment. Read more.

Many of us may have never heard of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), but laws like these require our government to ask the public to weigh in before agencies adopt or change regulations.

Regulations essentially describe how federal agencies will carry out laws — including decisions that could undermine science, or weaken safeguards on public health.

Public comments are collected at various points throughout the federal government’s rulemaking process, including when a regulation is proposed and finalized. (Learn about the rulemaking process.) These comments become part of the official, legal public record — the “Administrative Record.”

When the public responds with a huge outpouring of support for environmental protections, these individual messages collectively undercut politicians' attempts to claim otherwise.

What this means is each of us can take a role in shaping the rules our government creates — and ensuring those rules are fair and effective.