“Putting Drinking Water First” means stopping threats to drinking water where they start.
Clean Water Action is working to win strong water pollution controls by focusing on public health and drinking water impacts and bringing public health and environmental advocacy into Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) implementation.
Clean Water Action’s Putting Drinking Water First approach means making drinking water impacts a primary consideration when developing regulations and other programs involving upstream activities that could negatively impact downstream drinking water sources. The EPA/Corps Clean Water Rule better protects tributaries that impact the health of downstream waters, include drinking water sources: The Clean Water Rule has concrete implications for source water protection and for drinking water quality.
The “Review of Existing Regulations” is asking the wrong questions.
Clean Water Action and Clean Water Fund strongly object to the premise behind Executive Order 13777 and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “Review of Existing Regulations.” Regulations, including environmental and health protections, are not holding back our country. On the contrary, regulations that protect our water, air and health are some of the most powerful driving forces for our economy and our communities. Whether it is water for drinking, fishing, swimming, boating, irrigation, food production, brewing or other industries, clean water is the essential input. It is the foundation of healthy communities.
Lead is a highly poisonous metal and can affect almost every organ in the body and the nervous system. It is a naturally occurring element found, due to human activity, in all parts of our environment.
“Act like drinking water matters.” This approach has always been at the core of Clean Water Action’s programs.
Today the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled its latest attack on the Clean Water Act and protections for our water and communities. Don’t worry if you’ve lost count -- this is the third or fourth this year -- and more are coming.
What did EPA propose?
Visit South Platte River Park in Littleton, Colorado (a suburb a few miles south of Denver) on a summer weekend and you’ll likely see dozens of people paddling, wading, fishing, or tubing on the river. A few weeks ago I was one of those tubers enjoying higher than normal flows on the South Platte, thanks to the high snowpack this past winter. As we floated on riffles and gentle rapids, families of ducks grazed at the river’s edge and trout swam beneath us. Occasionally we got caught on someone’s fishing line or bumped tubes in crowded sections of the river.
The Trump/Wheeler Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is dismantling critical parts of the Clean Water Act one by one. Cumulatively these are the most serious threat to our nation’s bedrock environmental law in its history. If even one of these administration proposals is finalized, the consequences would be dire. Taken together, the Clean Water Act as we know it could go away. Since the Trump administration is parceling out these assaults, it can be hard to see the full picture.
