With a sweeping new proposal, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Army Corps of Engineers would dramatically weaken the Clean Water Act by removing protections for 20 million acres of wetlands and up to 60 percent of streams in America.

The proposed rule limiting the scope of the Clean Water Act comes almost two years after the president signed an executive order directing EPA and the Corps to carry out this process. While the Clean Water Act has traditionally protected most or all natural waters, the proposed rule would base protections largely on whether a stream flows all year and whether a wetland touches a lake or river.

The fundamental flaw in this approach is that it fails to consider the impact that pollution in small tributary streams and isolated wetlands will have on rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. How a small stream affects water quality - not how often it flows - has traditionally been the benchmark for Clean Water Act protections. Under the proposed rule, streams that do not flow all year are most likely to lose protection - regardless of whether they flow into public drinking water supplies or outdoor recreation areas. This will jeopardize public health and threaten our $887 billion outdoor recreation economy.

While the proposed regulation is already bad, EPA and Corps of Engineers are also seeking comments on an approach that would eliminate protections for all streams that do not flow continuously all year.

Science has overwhelmingly shown that to effectively protect water quality, we must protect wetlands and the tributary streams that flow directly into our rivers and lakes.

The League has been fighting for clean water since our founding to protect drinking water supplies and the water-based outdoor recreation so many of us enjoy. This proposal flies in the face of what the League stands for, and we urge all members and supporters to tell EPA and the Corps of Engineers to reject this harmful proposal and maintain science-based protections for our nation’s waters, as mandated by the Clean Water Act.

For more information or help submitting comments, please visit iwla.org/cwa.