CLEAN WATER—The Bush administration’s No Protection policy removes Clean Water Act regulations on tens of thousands of miles of rivers.

When it comes to clean water, America has come a long way.

In 1969, The Cuyahoga River, a tributary of the Great Lakes, was so full of noxious chemicals that it regularly burst into flames.

Back then, the Chesapeake Bay lost the majority of its osprey population to a huge influx of DDT.

The Wisconsin and Milwaukee Rivers flowed with sludge and noxious smelling water from the breweries and paper mills on their banks.

And the Puget Sound’s treasured orca had all but disappeared.

Today, we still have problems, but a firm, national commitment, embodied by passage of the 1972 Clean Water Act, has restored the health of many waterways.

Nobody disputes that rivers run much cleaner nowadays because of federal legislation that curbed sewage, paper mills, industrial polluters and storm drains from polluting our water.

But over the past two years, the Bush administration has quietly taken steps to walk away from the Clean Water Act’s commitment to clean waterways—a development that’s even more worrisome given the current legal assault being waged on the Clean Water Act by private developers.

No Protection Policy
In Jan. 2003, the Bush administration proposed a dramatic change in the scope of federal oversight of the nation’s waters.

In Washington-speak, the change called for the EPA to “immediately stop protecting any “isolated” nonnavigable waters without case-bycase approval.”

In practice, the change removed tens of thousand miles of streams and 20 million acres of wetlands from the federal Clean Water Act’s protection—a fifth of the total wetland area in the continental U.S.

The administration’s withdrawal of federal protections of these waters couldn’t be happening at a worse time.

In recent years, powerful real estate developers, aided and abetted by ideologically driven law firms, have mounted a series of challenges to the Clean Water Act.

Two of these cases have reached the U.S. Supreme Court. In these cases, the Bush administration’s Department of Justice is arguing to continue protection of at-risk waterways.

The state PIRGs are working with members of Congress to challenge this retreat from the nation’s commitment to clean water.

Why Smalls Streams Matter
In the same way that capillaries and veins deliver nutrients to the body smaller rivers and streams transport water that we depend upon for drinking and other uses.

Surrounding those smaller rivers and streams are a network of wetlands, which work as nature’s buffer zones.

Wetlands are like the kidneys—filtering out dangerous toxins and excess sediment and controlling heavy rains before they become floodwaters.

That’s where developers interests intersect with clean water policy. Wetlands are often undeveloped because they’re, well, wet for much of the year.

But as development gobbles up more and more of America’s land, what used to be considered swampland is now considered prime real estate.

When wetlands are developed they no longer play the critical role of water treatment plant. In fact, developing these lands, and other land close to waterways actually accelerates pollution’s entry into waterways by increasing the amount of paved surfaces and the rate of erosion.

By removing protections on small streams and wetlands, the Bush administration cut the Clean Water Act off at its roots.

CLEAN WATER RESTORATION ACT—Clean Water Advocate Christy Leavitt (right) meets with Rep. Jim Leach (IA), a lead sponsor of the Clean Water Authority Restoration Act.

The Supreme Court On Water
The Bush administration’s retreat on protection of wetlands and streams could be just the beginning of the problems for our waterways.

The developers filing suit in the Supreme Court contend that Congress intended the Clean Water Act to apply only to navigable waters.

If you can’t run a tugboat or barge down it, they argue, the federal government has no business protecting it—even if that stream or creek feeds into a river that feeds into a lake that feeds into a bay.

If small waterways aren’t protected, no waterway is protected.

Worse, some justices, such as newly appointed Alito and Roberts could interpret the so-called commerce clause of the Constitution in extremely narrow terms.

It’s possible these justices could vote to invalidate any Clean Water Act protection that fails to directly affect interstate commerce—a serious challenge to nearly every federal environmental standard passed in the last 35 years.

At press time, justices had not reached a decision in either case.

Act Could Save Water Protections
But Congress could pick up where the Supreme Court and the White House are failing at the Clean Water Act’s commitment.

Congress will consider the Clean Water Authority Restoration Act in the coming months. The law would re-affirm the power of the Clean Water Act to protect waterways big and small.

The Act, introduced by Representatives Oberstar (MN), Leach (IA), Dingell (MI) and Boehlert (NY) and 120 of their colleagues in the House and Senator Feingold (WI) in the Senate, would re-affirm the power of the Clean Water Act to protect waterways both great and small.

In February, PIRG staff and activists from across the country came to Washington D.C. to meet with members of Congress, urging them to support the bill, and to gather more co-sponsors. Congress will vote on the bill this summer.

Critical Moment For Water
In recent months, state PIRGS and our allies have won other water protections, including blocking the Bush administration’s sewage plan, and stopping Congress from repealing a ban on new coastal drilling on the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts.

But given the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision, the waterways at risk under the No Protection policy, this is our biggest challenge yet.

Our government made a commitment to clean water 34 years ago, a commitment that has spawned remarkable achievements in the restoration of our country’s waterways.

Whether we live up to that commitment could be determined in the next few months.

To take action, go to www.pirg.org click on your state and find out how you can ask your elected officials to cosponsor the Clean Water Authority Restoration Act, and urge the Bush administration to repeal the No Protection Policy.

This article was written with the assistance of Christy Leavitt, the state PIRGs clean water advocate.