April, 21 2020, 12:00am EDT
EPA Waters Rule Is a License to Pollute
Statement by Dr. Andrew Rosenberg, Union of Concerned Scientists
WASHINGTON
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today issued a final rule that limits the waters afforded protection under the Clean Water Act. This new, restrictive definition will enable higher levels of pollution and undermine the agency's mission of protecting public health, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).
Below is a statement by Dr. Andrew A. Rosenberg, director of the Center for Science and Democracy at UCS and former deputy director of the National Marine Fisheries Service at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"This new rule is nothing more and nothing less than a license to pollute. By excluding a wide range of wetlands, temporary streams, and groundwater from protection, the EPA is increasing the risk to the water systems we all depend on.
"For decades, the Clean Water Act has helped to reduce pollution and protect public health. With this new rule, EPA political leaders are aiding powerful polluting industries at the expense of public health and safety. It's irresponsible and nonsensical to pretend, as EPA does, that smaller streams don't flow into larger ones, and that we can simply focus on protecting bigger waterways. Pollution at one point in the water system affects the whole system. Scientists and public health advocates--including the EPA's own Science Advisory Board--have criticized EPA's approach to this rule.
"Releasing this rule right before Earth Day adds insult to injury. Even as EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler touts five decades of environmental progress, he's knowingly dismantling the rules that made that progress possible, putting us all on a path to dirtier air and water and unhealthier communities.
"This is yet another moment the administration is rolling back protections that are vital to public health--in the midst of perhaps the greatest public health crisis of our lifetimes."
The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world. UCS combines independent scientific research and citizen action to develop innovative, practical solutions and to secure responsible changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices.
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Despite the Pentagon's repeated failures to pass audits and various alarming policies, 81 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives voted with 200 Republicans on Wednesday to advance a $883.7 billion annual defense package.
The Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2025, unveiled by congressional negotiators this past Saturday, still needs approval from the Senate, which is expected to vote next week. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Wednesday that he plans to vote no and spoke out against the military-industrial complex.
The push to pass the NDAA comes as this congressional session winds down and after the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) announced last month that it had failed yet another audit—which several lawmakers highlighted after the Wednesday vote.
Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), co-chairs and co-founders of the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus, said in a joint statement, "Time and time again, Congress seems to be able to find the funds necessary to line the pockets of defense contractors while neglecting the problems everyday Americans face here at home."
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Several of the 124 House Democrats who voted against the NDAA cited those "culture war" policies, in addition to concerns about how the Pentagon spends massive amounts of money that could go toward improving lives across the country.
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As Omar, a leading critic of the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, also pointed out: "The NDAA includes a provision that blocks the Pentagon from using data on casualties and deaths from the Gaza Ministry of Health or any sources relying on those statistics. This is an alarming erasure of the suffering of the Palestinian people, ignoring the human toll of ongoing violence."
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