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Undated:
The Clean Water
Act (CWA) is the primary
federal
law in the
United States governing
water pollution. Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical,
physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters by preventing point
and nonpoint pollution sources, providing assistance to publicly owned treatment
works for the improvement of
wastewater treatment, and maintaining the integrity of
wetlands. It is one of the United States' first and most influential modern
environmental laws. As with many other major
U.S. federal environmental statutes, it is administered by the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in coordination with state
governments.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Water_Act
Undated: Federal Water Pollution Control Act
(1972) or the Clean Water Act (CWA) [Bureau of Ocean
Energy Management]
https://www.boem.gov/Environmental-Stewardship/Environmental-Assessment/CWA/index.aspx
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Undated: 40 Years of the Clean Water Act
Department of Energy and Environmental Protection - Connecticut has a proud and
lengthy history as a national leader in water quality management. As we draw
near the 40th year anniversary of the Connecticut Clean Water Act and the 35th
year anniversary of the federal Clean Water Act,
many rivers, streams, and lakes are cleaner now than they have been in the past
100 years. Rivers such as the Willimantic, Naugatuck, Pequabuck, Quinnipiac, Connecticut and Farmington, once
seriously polluted, are now used for many recreational pursuits. Our public
water supply reservoirs are provided a level of protection unsurpassed elsewhere
in the country. More people than ever are using the state's water resources for
enjoyment. Though we have cleaned up most of our worst problems, we have major
issues yet to be fully addressed, such as hypoxia (low dissolved oxygen) in Long
Island Sound, combined sewer overflows and groundwater contamination.
http://www.ct.gov/deep/cwp/view.asp?a=2719&q=325598
Editorial note: During the early to mid-20th
Century, the village of Hibbing, Minnesota opted to use the beautiful East Swan
River for a sewage dump, since that was the least expensive option for getting
rid of human waste from the growing village. That river flowed south through
farming communities, emptying into the St. Louis River which flows into Lake
Superior. Farmers all along both rivers at the time (not to mention properties
at Lake Superior itself) used the flow as a valuable source of water for
themselves and
their livestock, for bathing, washing clothes, swimming, for irrigation into
fields and gardens, and some struggled through the filthy waters to float logs
down to the Cloquet, Minnesota paper mills. The water was heavily
fouled with the stench of urine and fecal matter from thousands of people living
in and around the Hibbing area, resulting in a local nickname for the river of "Sh*t
Creek".
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Iron mines also used the river, dumping millions
of tons of iron ore tailings into the water. After Hibbing had to cease dumping
sewage in 1939, the river was still polluted because of the mines, and was a
deep red ore color, turning the flesh of fish a red-orange and making them
inedible.
The idea of regularly and purposely polluting any American stream for any reason
is in the editor's estimation reprehensible (except of course during emergency).
Today due to State legal restrictions against polluters, the East Swan River is
rather back to its natural state, although ongoing monitoring does show some
bacterial pollution problems.
All of America needs control over corporate and untoward public interests to
prevent ruination as of the East Swan in the 1900s. No river, no community,
should suffer polluted waters due to lack of controls. Since some states
have little funding for non-urgent issues, Federal control and funding
assistance seems to be the only
good answer to aim for pure waters in all communities, ensuring that even the
poorest areas can comply.
Scroll down for Clean Water Act files ...
The lovely East Swan River today:
-- 2010 --
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January 8: Improving Clean Water Act
Enforcement
The 1972 Clean Water Act (CWA) is one of the nation’s premier environmental
statutes. The law aims to “restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and
biological integrity” of the country’s waters and to improve human health,
recreational opportunities, and wildlife protection.
http://www.rff.org/blog/2010/improving-clean-water-act-enforcement
-- 2012 --
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December 10: Why Rivers No Longer Burn
The Clean Water Act is one of the greatest successes in environmental law.
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2012/12/clean_water_act_40th_anniversary_the_greatest_success_in_environmental_law.html
-- 2014 --
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January 8: EPA and the Corps Ignoring Sound
Science on Critical Clean Water Act Regulations
There has been long-standing controversy over what the phrase “waters of the
U.S.” means under the CWA. The EPA and the Corps have consistently taken very
broad interpretations of this term. The United States Supreme Court in two
recent cases rejected the broad overreach taken by both the EPA and the Corps.[3]
The new rules will try again to clarify the scope of federal agency power to
regulate water bodies.
https://www.heritage.org/environment/report/epa-and-the-corps-ignoring-sound-science-critical-clean-water-act-regulations
-- 2015 --
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May 27: EPA Broadens Clean Water Regulations
Industry groups and GOP lawmakers have lambasted Waters of the United States,
which clarifies EPA authority under the Clean Water Act.
The Obama administration expanded federal protection
of U.S. waterways and drinking water supplies Wednesday, issuing a rule through
the Environmental Protection Agency that also clarifies which rivers, streams,
ponds and wetlands may be covered by the Clean Water Act.
The measure, known as the Clean Water Rule, has attracted intense opposition
from fertilizer companies, the agriculture sector, energy producers and
conservative lawmakers in Congress, who describe it as a “federal overreach”
that will hamper economic growth and drive up costs for farmers and chemical
producers.
“For the water in the rivers and lakes in our communities that flow to our
drinking water to be clean, the streams and wetlands that feed them need to be
clean too,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said in a statement.
https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/05/27/epa-expands-clean-water-regulations
August 20: On August 5, a costly mistake by
an Environmental Protection Agency cleanup crew spilled millions of liters of
toxic mine waste into Colorado’s Animas River. Just the day before the Animas
mess, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that the Gulf
of Mexico dead zone, an expanse of water without enough oxygen to support fish
and other marine animals,
covered an area larger than Connecticut. Two days before that marked the
one-year anniversary of the
Toledo water crisis, when more than 400,000 people in the Ohio city lost
their drinking water for several days due to a toxic algal bloom in Lake Erie.
The list goes on, encompassing
chemical spills and coal ash breaches in the East,
oil pipeline ruptures in the Midwest and South,
dying fisheries and
nitrate contamination in the Southeast, even sea lions dying along the
Pacific coast because of toxic algae blooms. All are evidence that water
pollution is still a dismal reality in the United States more than four decades
after Congress passed the Clean Water Act and vowed to “restore and maintain the
chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation’s waters.”
http://www.circleofblue.org/2015/world/u-s-clean-water-law-needs-new-act-for-the-21st-century/
-- 2016 --
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November 15: What
Does Trump Mean for America's Lands and Waters?
From oil exploration to the Clean Water Act, the incoming Trump Administration
stands to make a break from previous policy.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/11/trump-public-lands-waters-united-states-environment/
-- 2017 --
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February 28: Trump Aims To 'Eliminate' Clean
Water Rule
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/28/517016071/trump-aims-to-eliminate-clean-water-rule
March 9:
Ivanka Trump's D.C. landlord is tycoon behind planned Ely copper mine
Andrónico Luksic is a Chilean billionaire whose family controls Twin Metals,
the company embroiled in a legal fight with the U.S. government over a proposed
copper mine near the Minnesota Boundary Waters. He also owns the home where two
of the most influential people in Washington, D.C., are living.
That's according to The Wall Street Journal, which reports on the Minnesota
connection to
Ivanka Trump and
Jared Kushner's D.C. home, which Luksic bought just after the November
election. Trump and Kushner were also looking at the house but wanted to rent
it; their broker made the connection to Luksic, a spokeswoman said.
Twin Metals,
a unit of Chilean mining company Antofagasta, is embroiled in several
disputes over its proposed copper mine. It's sued the federal government over
expired mineral rights, and late last year regulators refused to reissue them,
citing the threat of pollution to Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area.
https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2017/03/09/ivanka-trumps-dc-landlord-is-tycoon-behind-mine.html
--- June 25, 2018 - Two more lawsuits were filed
against the federal government Monday for its recent decision to reinstate
expired copper-nickel mining leases next to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area —
bringing the total to three complaints that altogether represent five
environmental groups and nine Minnesota businesses.
--- Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness filed its own
complaint, and four national environmental groups filed another. Last week nine
businesses from Ely, Minn., that rely on recreation and tourism in the BWCA
filed suit along with the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters. All three
complaints are pending in federal court in Washington, D.C.
--- The leases are held by Twin Metals Minnesota, a subsidiary of
Chilean conglomerate Antofagasta PLC, and are located on Superior National
Forest lands just outside the BWCA near Ely. Twin Metals said in a statement it
“firmly believes there is no basis for a court to disturb the reinstatement of
the leases and will take appropriate steps to defend the government’s actions.”
http://www.startribune.com/lawsuits-against-twin-metals-mining-leases-pile-up/486503581/
June 27: We knew this day was coming. Scott
Pruitt has tried to gut protections for clean water for years and President
Trump made repealing the Clean Water Rule a regular part of his 2016 campaign
stump speeches.
https://www.cleanwateraction.org/tags/donald-trump
June 28: EPA Moves to Eliminate Essential
Clean Water Act Protections
Continuing its march toward elimination of key Clean Water Act protections, the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
on Tuesday issued a formal notice of withdrawal of the Obama administration's
rule defining which waters can be protected against pollution and destruction
under federal law.
https://www.ecowatch.com/wotus-epa-clean-water-act-2449664043.html
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August 7: Summary of the Clean Water Act
https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-clean-water-act
August 8: History of the Clean Water Act
The Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948 was the first major U.S. law to
address water pollution. Growing public awareness and concern for controlling
water pollution led to sweeping amendments in 1972. As amended in 1972, the law
became commonly known as the Clean Water Act (CWA).
https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/history-clean-water-act
Undated: Digest of Federal Resource Laws of
Interest to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Federal Water Pollution Control Act (Clean Water Act)
https://www.fws.gov/laws/lawsdigest/fwatrpo.HTML
August 28: What You Need to Know About the
Clean Water Rule
The Clean Water Rule protects our precious streams, rivers, and wetlands across
the United States that we rely on for drinking water, recreation, and our
economy.
On June 27, 2017 Administrator Scott Pruitt of the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA)
announced a roll back of an Obama-era administration policy that protected
more than half the nation’s streams from pollution. “We are taking significant
action to return power to the states and provide regulatory certainty to our
nation’s farmers and businesses,” Pruitt said in a statement at the time. But
what is the Clean Water Rule (CWR), why was it never implemented, and how will
repealing it affect the drinking water of one in three Americans?
https://www.americanrivers.org/2017/08/need-know-clean-water-rule/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIudPN_Inj2QIVFP5kCh2_2QkyEAAYASAAEgLTkvD_BwE
October 5: Justices to determine how Clean
Water Act litigation flows
http://www.scotusblog.com/2017/10/argument-preview-justices-determine-clean-water-act-litigation-flows/
-- 2018 --
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January
22: In a hit to the Trump administration, the Supreme Court
unanimously ruled Monday that cases litigating the Clean Water Act should be
heard by federal district courts.
The administration had argued those cases should be heard in federal appeals
courts.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case over an Obama-era regulation, known as
the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, back in January 2017, after debate
as to whether the U.S. Court of Appeals or federal district courts had the
authority to hear the lawsuits from industry groups and states that say the rule
went too far.
Dozens of parties had filed lawsuits over the regulation in both federal appeals
courts and district courts.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/370103-supreme-court-rules-against-trump-administration-on-clean-water
January 31:
E.P.A. Blocks Obama-Era Clean Water Rule
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/climate/trump-water-wotus.html
February 1: Federal Appeals Court Upholds
Maui Clean Water Act Decision
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules Maui County violated the Clean Water
Act by injecting millions of gallons of treated sewage each day into injection
wells that discharge pollutants into the Pacific Ocean
https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2018/federal-appeals-court-upholds-maui-clean-water-act-decision
February 27: Tyson Poultry Inc. was
sentenced in federal court in Springfield, Missouri, to pay a $2 million
criminal fine, serve two years of probation, and pay $500,000 to directly remedy
harm caused when it violated the Clean Water Act, the Justice Department
announced. The charges stemmed from discharges at Tyson’s slaughter and
processing facility in Monett, Missouri that led to a major fish kill event.
Tyson Poultry, the nation’s largest chicken producer, is headquartered in
Springdale, Arkansas, and is a subsidiary of Tyson Foods Inc. According to court
records, Tyson Poultry’s conviction arose out of a spill at its feed mill in
Aurora, Missouri, where it mixed ingredients to produce chicken feed. One
ingredient was a liquid food supplement called “Alimet,” which is a very strong
acid with a pH of less than one. In May 2014, the tank used to store Alimet at
the Aurora feed mill sprang a leak. Tyson had the spilled substance transported
to its Monett plant where the Alimet was then discharged into the sewers and
flowed into the City of Monett municipal waste water treatment plant. The Alimet
killed bacteria used to reduce ammonia in discharges from the treatment plant.
As a result, more ammonia was released from the plant into Clear Creek, and
approximately 108,000 fish were killed.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/tyson-poultry-fined-2-million-violating-clean-water-act
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February 28: Clean Water Act, WOTUS
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
finalized a rule in June 2015 that significantly expanded the definition of
“waters of the United States,” also known as “navigable waters,” under the Clean
Water Act. EPA failed to listen to concerned farmers, ranchers and business
owners around the country in crafting its new rule, vastly expanding EPA’s and
the Corps’ regulatory authority beyond the limits approved by Congress and
affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court. The rule was challenged in court by dozens
of state, municipal, industry and environmental organizations. It was quickly
blocked by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals based on its legal flaws and the
harm it threatened to cause, and was never implemented nationwide.
https://www.fb.org/issues/regulatory-reform/clean-water-act/
March 10: Consequences of the Clean Water
Act and the Demand for Water Quality
Since the 1972 U.S. Clean Water Act, government and industry have invested over
$1 trillion to abate water pollution, or $100 per person-year. Over half of U.S.
stream and river miles, however, still violate pollution standards. We use the
most comprehensive set of files ever compiled on water pollution and its
determinants, including 50 million pollution readings from 170,000 monitoring
sites, to study water pollution's trends, causes, and welfare consequences. We
have three main findings. First, water pollution concentrations have fallen
substantially since 1972, though were declining at faster rates before then.
Second, the Clean Water Act's grants to municipal wastewater treatment plants
caused some of these declines. Third, the grants' estimated effects on housing
values are generally smaller than the grants' costs.
http://www.nber.org/papers/w23070
Undated: How the Clean Water Act Protects
Your Rivers
Before The Clean Water Act ... In 1969 Ohio’s Cuyahoga River was so fouled by
industrial pollution that the river caught on fire.
Public outcry over dirty rivers spurred Congress to pass the landmark
Clean Water Act in 1972.
The historic law was designed to protect all of our waters – from the smallest
streams to the mightiest rivers – from pollution and destruction.
Thanks to the Clean Water Act, billions of pounds of pollution have been kept
out of our rivers and the number of waters that meet clean water goals
nationwide has doubled – with direct benefits for drinking water, public health,
recreation, and wildlife. The Act represented a huge step forward by requiring
states to set clean water standards to protect uses such as swimming, fishing,
and drinking, and for the regulation of pollution discharges.
And yet – even after the 40th anniversary of this important law, many of our
rivers remain polluted by urban and agricultural runoff and sewer overflows, and
almost half of our streams are in poor health.
https://www.americanrivers.org/rivers/discover-your-river/the-importance-of-the-cwa-to-protecting-your-rivers-clean-water/
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Undated: Putting Drinking Water First:
Restoring Clean Water Act Protections to Streams and Wetlands
There has been confusion over which streams, wetlands, and other water resources
are covered under Clean Water Act pollution control programs following Supreme
Court decisions in 2001 and 2006 and subsequent Bush Administration policies.
These decisions led to permitting delays and left water resources vulnerable to
pollution or destruction. In May 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) issued a final Clean Water
Rule to clarify which types of small streams, wetlands, and other water
resources are protected by the Clean Water Act.1 Polluters and political allies
in several states immediately sued to block the rule and it has been tied up in
litigation since, leaving these valuable water resources at risk.
https://www.cleanwateraction.org/features/putting-drinking-water-first-restoring-clean-water-act-protections-streams-and-wetlands
March 15: Report: Major Texas industrial
facilities rank first nationally in illegal water pollution
A study by a Texas environmental group and a California think tank found that
about half of Texas’ major industrial facilities released illegal levels of
pollution into rivers, lakes and other waterways over the past two years.
https://www.texastribune.org/2018/03/15/report-texas-industrial-facilities-rank-first-illegal-water-pollution/
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/5/18/trumps_epa_doesnt_want_you_to
... Walden Pond, the once-pristine jewel that
inspired the American naturalist and philosopher in the mid 1800s, has been
befouled by generations of swimmers urinating in the water, according to
a new study.
So much so that it is wrecking the ecosystem and devastating the fish population
of the pond some 25 miles west of Boston that Thoreau immortalized in his
best-known work, “Walden; or, Life in the Woods.”
July 3:
At issue: the Obama-era EPA and Army Corps of Engineers' 400-page review of
research on how wetlands and small streams affect downstream rivers, lakes and
estuaries.
As it proposes to repeal the Clean Water Rule, or Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS),
regulation, the Trump-led agencies say the previous administration gave too much
weight to the "Connectivity Report."
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/federal-court-reinstates-clean-water-rule-delayed-trump/story?id=57222558
Forecasters predicted the water will continue to rise through the weekend at the
L.V. Sutton Power Station. Duke Energy spokeswoman Paige Sheehan said the
utility doesn't believe the breach poses a significant threat of increased
flooding to nearby communities.
Sheehan said the company can't rule out that ash might be escaping the flooded
dump and flowing through the lake into the river.
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Vast amounts of wetlands and thousands of miles of U.S. waterways would no
longer be federally protected by the Clean Water Act under a new proposal by the
Trump administration.
The proposal, announced Tuesday at the Environmental Protection Agency, would
change the EPA's definition of "waters of the United States," or WOTUS, limiting
the types of waterways that fall under federal protection to major waterways,
their tributaries, adjacent wetlands and a few other categories.
With lawsuits likely and a 60-day public comment period ahead, the
administration's proposal is far from becoming law.
https://www.npr.org/2018/12/11/675477583/trump-epa-proposes-big-changes-to-federal-water-protections?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20181211&utm_campaign=breakingnews&utm_term=nprnews
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Undated: We are not holding our breath that
President Trump will start backing up his administration’s environmental agenda
with scientific facts. But we are holding him accountable for what he says.
President Trump’s torrent of misleading statements and flat-out lies has an army
of journalists working 24/7 to set the record straight. To help those who focus,
as we do, on climate, energy, and other environmental issues, NRDC will call out
Trump whenever he distorts the facts about such matters. Here, we offer our
inaugural edition of Trump Lies. We expect to update it regularly.
https://www.nrdc.org/trump-lies
-- 2020 --
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