Defend our right to clean water

What's At Stake

Despite the uproar over what it’s already done, the Supreme Court’s campaign to wind back our civil, reproductive, voting, and environmental rights continues. This May, the Supreme Court decided Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency — a case that it used to undermine our right to clean water. Tell Congress it’s time to defend our right to clean water.

The Sacketts and their industry allies have waged a long-running campaign to undermine our right to clean water after the Sacketts filled in a wetland that the EPA claimed was subject to federal regulations. The new conservative supermajority of the Supreme Court took up their case and used it to severely weaken the Clean Water Act, eliminating longstanding protections for millions of acres of wetlands.

Right now, communities in the West are grappling with unprecedented flooding, and residents of multiple cities, like Jackson and Flint, are simply unable to drink their water. Despite this, the Supreme Court declared that private landowners should be able to act with impunity, no matter the impact of their actions. This mentality runs in the face of morality and science — our actions as individuals always affect others, just as polluting an upstream water source harms everyone downstream.

Congress doesn’t get to sit this one out — everyone has a role to play in protecting clean water, no matter what the Supreme Court says. Tell your members of Congress to prioritize clean water in the upcoming term.

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.)

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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.

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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.