Our Rivers, Lakes And Streams News

Nearly one year after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a murky split decision on federal clean water protections in Rapanos v. United States, the U.S. EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced a policy guidance today that instructs agency field staff on which waters are now protected by the Clean Water Act.
  
While the Bush administration publicized the policy as a clear protection of wetlands and other waters, the policy actually will remove decades-old Clean Water Act safeguards from streams and wetlands around the country and adds to the confusion of what waters are covered by the Act.  
  
With all their spinning, you’d think the Bush administration would actually keep America’s waters clean.
  
This new No Protection policy further makes the case for Congressional action to protect America’s waters.  The bipartisan Clean Water Restoration Act (H.R. 2421) clarifies that all waters in the U.S. should continue to be safeguarded by the Clean Water Act.  To clean up the Great Lakes, Colorado River and other treasured waters, we must defend the streams and wetlands that are their source waters.