Trump’s EPA Finalizes Its Gutting of Clean Water Rules
Rollback comes as a one-two punch to clean air and water in less than a week
Contacts
Erin Fitzgerald, Earthjustice, (415) 283-2323
Today, as we prepare to celebrate Earth Day, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the final rule for the rollback of key parts of the Clean Water Rule. This move is part of a multi-rule rollback effort by the Trump administration that ignores science and law to ease regulations for polluters. Repealing the Clean Water Rule without any valid scientific or legal support moves this country away from a commonsense safeguard that helps state and federal agencies protect our rivers, streams, and wetlands under the Clean Water Act. These rollbacks threaten drinking water sources for 117 million people in the United States.
The following is a statement from Earthjustice attorney Janette Brimmer:
“Trump’s EPA is taking advantage of a pandemic to covertly gut water safeguards. Under the cover of COVID-19, the Trump administration is giving extractive and polluting industries the power to dig up and destroy wetlands and to dump waste in streams, lakes, and wetlands all over the country. We will see them in court.”
These rollbacks come on the heels of the administration’s announcement last week that EPA should not regulate mercury and other toxic air pollution from power plants, which would have serious impacts on communities across the country and make it harder for EPA to improve air pollution rules.
Read more about what the Trump administration is doing to your water.
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