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Protecting The Clean Water Act

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 6, 2007

Since it was enacted in 1972, the Clean Water Act has prompted the cleanup of waters throughout the nation, from Tampa Bay to the Great Lakes.

But this key environmental safeguard is endangered. Recent court rulings have raised doubts about the scope of the law, particularly whether they apply to wetlands not directly connected to navigable waters. Federal agencies, pressured by developers, miners and other interests, appear ready to retreat from established guidelines.

The stakes are not small. Environmentalists estimate protections for about 30 percent of Florida's streams in addition to 800,000 acres of wetlands could be lost if the agencies give up protecting important waters inaccessible to boats. The Environmental Protection Agency has estimated 59 percent of the nation's streams could lose protection with a narrow interpretation of the law.

Congress can put an end to the uncertainty with the Clean Water Restoration Act, which would close the legal loopholes.

The legislation, which will be discussed this fall, makes clear Congress intended to protect the waters of the United States, not merely wetlands immediately adjacent to a major waterway.

This is not an expansion of the original law. It would use the same definition of 'waters of the United States' that had been used by the government agencies until the court's ambiguous rulings.

Former heads of the EPA who served under both Republican and Democratic administrations, including William Ruckelshaus who was in office when the act was adopted, have confirmed the law's intent was to cover the nation's interconnected wetlands systems.

The law would not apply to every wet spot on the ground. But it would ensure the Clean Water Act continued to buffer the nation's waterways from pollution and development.

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