Bush Administration Directs Agencies to Ignore Clean Water Act

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> Tue, 14 Sep 2004 13:06:10 GMT

> " BushGreenwatch " <info

 

> Bush Administration Directs Agencies to

> Ignore Clean Water Act

>

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> BUSHGREENWATCH

> Tracking the Bush Administration's Environmental

> Misdeeds

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>

> September 14, 2004

>

> BUSH ADMINISTRATION DIRECTS AGENCIES TO IGNORE CLEAN

> WATER ACT

>

> Using a back-door route to deregulation, the Bush

> administration

> has removed clean water protections for 20 million

> acres of

> American wetlands and tens of thousands of miles of

> streams,

> lakes and ponds, according to documents obtained

> through the

> federal Freedom of Information Act. [1]

>

> The documents, used to produce the report " Reckless

> Abandon: How

> the Bush Administration is Exposing America's Waters

> to Harm, "

> outline the consequences of a 2003 federal policy

> directive that

> encourages regulators to routinely avoid enforcing

> Clean Water

> Act protections for American rivers, lakes, streams

> and wetlands

> unless otherwise directed.

>

> The report was produced by nonprofit environmental

> groups

> Earthjustice, the National Wildlife Federation,

> Natural

> Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Sierra

> Club. It can be

> found online at http://ga3.org/ct/V7zkGk91ijJW/.

>

> " For the first time in over 30 years of cleaning up

> our waters,

> we're going backwards, " said Paul Schwartz, national

> policy

> coordinator for Clean Water Action. Schwartz noted

> that after

> the Clean Water Act took effect in 1972, the

> percentage of the

> nation's waters deemed clean enough for fishing and

> swimming

> nearly doubled. But recent state reports now show

> those numbers

> declining, he said.

>

> " The water is getting dirtier, and the Bush

> administration is

> leading one of the most fundamental attacks on a law

> that has

> arguably done more to protect the environment and

> public health

> than any other environmental law, " Schwartz told

> BushGreenwatch.

>

>

> On January 15, 2003, the Bush administration

> published

> guidelines in the Federal Register directing field

> staff at the

> Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army

> Corps of

> Engineers to stop issuing protections for millions

> of acres of

> wetlands, streams and other waters unless they first

> obtained

> permission from national headquarters in Washington,

> D.C.

>

> The directive further stated that no permission was

> required to

> ignore Clean Water Act protections for these waters

> and that no

> records would be kept of decisions not to invoke the

> Clean Water

> Act.

>

> The directive severely narrowed the types of

> waterways

> considered protected under the Clean Water Act to

> those that

> were navigable year-round by commercial vessels, a

> major

> departure from every previous administration's

> policies since

> 1972. [2]

>

> At the same time, the administration announced it

> would take

> steps to codify these guidelines through federal

> rulemaking

> procedures. It later backed off the rulemaking

> process in

> response to a massive public outcry. But the

> guidelines were

> left in place and have had the same impact, Schwartz

> said.

>

> In response, 219 members of the U.S. House of

> Representatives

> and 33 senators have signed on to letters to

> President Bush

> asking him to rescind the policy directive and

> restore

> protections to American waters. A bill has also been

> introduced

> in both the House and Senate that would make clear

> that all

> waters of the U.S. should fall under the protections

> of the

> Clean Water Act. [3]

>

> " The Bush administration's policy is based on the

> fantasy that

> if you let polluters dump sewage, oil and other

> toxic waste into

> small wetlands and streams, it won't ultimately wind

> up in our

> lakes, rivers and coastal waters, " said Daniel

> Rosenberg, an

> NRDC senior attorney in the group's August 12 press

> release.

>

> ###

>

> SOURCES:

> [1] " Reckless Abandon: How the Bush Administration

> is Exposing

> America's Waters to Harm, " CWN, Aug. 12, 2004,

> http://ga3.org/ct/Z1zkGk91ijJ5/.

> [2] Federal Register, Jan. 15, 2003; EarthJustice,

> NRDC, NWF,

> Sierra Club press release, Aug. 12, 2004.

> [3] Clean Water Authority Restoration Act HR 962 and

> S 473.

>

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