Protect the Unprotected
By Samantha Ruiz
Thousands of the nation’s largest water polluters are outside the Clean Water Act’s reach because the Supreme Court has left certain waterways unprotected by law. As a result, some corporations and companies are claiming that the Clean Water Act does not apply to them and pollution rates are rising exponentially.
The EPA created the Clean Water Act in 1972 to protect our bodies of water from this exact problem. The Clean Water Act, as described by the EPA, protects “waters of the United States” from pollution, destruction and contamination from spills and other toxic contamination. However, the agencies’ regulatory definition of “waters of the U.S.” excludes waste treatment systems and prior converted cropland. In some cases, water that is protected by the act, that is subjected to runoff associated with agriculture and forestry are excluded from regulation under the Clean Water Act as well.
Over the last ten years the Clean Water Act has been weakened by the Supreme Court decisions that have reduced the types of waters that the EPA can protect against pollution. For instance, in 2001, Congress held in Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County vs. United States Army Corps of Engineers that ponds that provided habitats for migratory birds that crossed state lines was not a sufficient enough basis to conclude that body of water as a “water of the U.S.” and therefore concluded that these ponds were not protected under the Clean Water Act. Since then, protection for wetlands and other isolated waters that play a very important role in the ecological, natural systems is more difficult to obtain.
SWANCC and other cases that determine which bodies of water are protected by the Clean Water Act have direct implications for protecting public health as well. Although the Clean Water Act does not directly deal with drinking water, it does regulate the polluters that contaminate waterways that supply many cities with tap water. EPA data indicates that about 117 million Americans get part of their drinking water from small streams. Protection for these streams is now jeopardized because of how past court decisions were interpreted.
Although all of this information may seem very overwhelming and quite alarming, it is important to realize that there are actions that we can take to emphasize the importance of our need for access to clean water. More recently, the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers have drafted the Water Protection Guide (http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=EPA-HQ-OW-2011-0409-0001) that creates opportunities to protect all waterways from corporations and more thoroughly identifies waters protected by the Clean Water Act.
Now is the time to act and let the EPA know that citizens want clean water and strongly encourage this document to be put into affect. As of now, until July 31st the EPA is taking public comments about the critical need to protect all water in the U.S. from pollution. Submit an email in favor of the Water Protection Guide here, http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=EPA-HQ-OW-2011-0409-0001 .
However, let’s not stop there. When it comes to clean water, nothing is more important that knowing where it comes from. Ask questions, get informed about local water policies in your area and educate others about the issues that surround clean water where you live. It is fundamental that we start to realize how essential water is to all life and treat it as the vital resource it will always be. ___________________________________________________________________________ 1.Letter to the EPA, Green the Block, 2011
2.Keeping America’s Water Clean and Safe, EPA, 2011
3.Rulings Restrict Clean Water Act, New York Times, 2010
