Advocates Call on EPA to Drop Its Dangerous Dirty Water Rule

(Kansas City, Kansas)-- Today, stakeholders held a press conference to call on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protect clean water and abandon its proposed Dirty Water Rule, the latest in the agency’s relentless efforts to rollback critical protections and make it easier for industry to endanger our kids and communities without any accountability.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2019
Drue Winters, Policy Director, American Fisheries Society

“The rule fails to align with the original intent of the Clean Water Act to ‘to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters.’ Further, the rule is inconsistent with more than a half century of scientific research that demonstrates that the integrity of “traditionally navigable” waters fundamentally depends on ephemeral, intermittent, and perennial headwater streams, as well as the many associated lakes, wetlands, and off-channel habitats”.

Tim Fete, MD, Pediatrician, Columbia, Missouri
“That means the best line of defense to protect our nation’s water quality and the health of our kids is to prevent harmful contaminants, toxins and other pollution from entering our groundwater, rivers, lakes, streams and bays in the first place. This should be a primary consideration when developing regulations and other programs involving upstream activities that could negatively impact downstream drinking water sources. When this doesn’t happen, we need to speak up. That’s what I am doing today. Please fight to protect our vital water resources for our children and grandchildren.”

Brian McGeehan, Owner, Montana Angler
“A strong Clean Water Act IS pro business. It is good for the economy and good for jobs. While removing protections for seasonal streams and wetlands may benefit a handful of businesses, it will significantly damage many, many others including ours”.

Vincent Valentino, Land Grant Brewing
“By limiting the impact of the clean water act by reducing the amount of waterways and bodies of water that are regulated by said act, the EPA is in effect, passing the cost of treating, filtering, and purifying this water onto the craft beer industry and the thousands it effects.”

Diana Umpierre, AICP, Sierra Club Organizing Representative, Florida
“Wetlands are our first line of defense against nutrient pollution. Florida needs stronger federal clean water protections. Our economy cannot endure weaker protections. The 2015 rule was a major step in the right direction. What you propose is more than just a rollback; it is a crime against Florida’s future.”

Ron Klataske, Audubon of Kansas
“In the history of the EPA there has never been a proposal of this magnitude to abandon and disregard the ecological values of wetlands and streams, fish and wildlife, clean water for all purposes (from drinking water to recreation) and the science of watershed protection.”

Ean Thomas Tafoya, Colorado Latino Forum
“I believe in the activists young and old, in the souls of mankind that they know ---- protecting water above all is the most important.”

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Press Contacts
Michael Kelly
mkelly@cleanwater.org
206-724-9693
Lacey McCormick
mccormick@nwf.org
512-203-3016
Issues:
Civic Engagement and Elections, Water
Campaign:
Putting Drinking Water First, Strengthening Clean Water Protections
Region/State:
National