I’m sure you’ve read something about the EPA’s new rule rolling back restrictions of the clean water act. Millions of streams, headwaters and wetlands that were once protected from pollution will now be accessible to all forms of devastation. It’s part of Mr. Trump’s fervent campaign to undo everything Obama did. And boy is he dedicated to his cause.
EPA final rule unravels Clean Water Act protections
The Environmental Protection Agency announced today it is finalizing a rule that will drop protections for millions of miles of streams and millions of acres of wetlands, putting watersheds at risk for countless Americans.
The revised rule announced Thursday states that ephemeral bodies of water — those that form only after rainfall or that flow only part of the year and dry up at other times — are among those that are not subject to federal control. This exception also applies to waste treatment systems, groundwater, prior converted cropland and farm watering ponds.
It also identifies four categories that are federally regulated under the Clean Water Act: large navigable waters such as the Mississippi River, tributaries, lakes and ponds, and major wetlands.
Hear that? The only water we need to protect is water we can SAIL on. I.E. that people might see. Shipping water. Not drinking water. And if you think Trump is especially evil think again because this is EXACTLY what the Bush administration did before Obama came along.
Despite prior reports, there are no data or tools that can accurately map or quantify the scope of “waters of the United States.” This is the case today, and it was the case in 2014 when the Obama Administration issued its blog titled “Mapping the Truth.” Therefore, any assertions attempting to quantify changes in the scope of waters based on these data sets are far too inaccurate and speculative to be meaningful. While this Administration agrees that the current data and tools are insufficient, we are committed to supporting the development and improvement of the technology needed to map the nation’s aquatic resources.
Water can go EVERYWHERE if it floods right? So there’s no real way to say where a stream should be. I mean your house could be in the middle of a stream if we keep releasing carbon. So lets not quibble about “Is it a stream” or “Isn’t it a stream“. Lets just say once it gets navigable it matters.
You can thank Justice Scalia for pointing us towards this dark place before his death. Well, Scalia and Trump.
On February 28, 2017, the President signed the “Executive Order on Restoring the Rule of Law, Federalism, and Economic Growth by Reviewing the ‘Waters of the United States’ Rule.” The E.O. calls on the EPA Administrator and the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works to review the final 2015 Rule and “publish for notice and comment a proposed rule rescinding or revising the rule….” The E.O. directs that the EPA and the Department of Army “shall consider interpreting the term ‘navigable waters’” in a manner “consistent with Justice Scalia’s opinion” in Rapanos v. United States (2006).
Rapano?
The Supreme Court split 4-1-4 on Rapanos, a case brought by a Michigan landowner who was blocked from developing a property that had been designated a wetland. Writing for the four conservative justices, Scalia said only waterways and wetlands with “relatively permanent” surface water connections to larger waterways should be regulated under the Clean Water Act.
But Kennedy — then the court’s swing vote — drew up his own regulatory test, arguing that streams and wetlands should be protected if they have chemical, biological or hydrological connections to waterways. That test — which he called a “significant nexus” — became the defining characteristic of his opinion.
Kennedy was right. But Kennedy is gone, sipping whiskey on the back porch of his grandaughter’s birthday party. And the criminals have taken over the grocery store and the bank and the police station. Now officially ZERO waterways are connected to any other waterways. And we can dump pollution anywhere we want except a handful of rivers. Beginnings are unimportant and it doesn’t matter until you get to the end.
America voted for this.
