FREE NEWS LINKS
HOME SEARCH
Updates & changes ongoing ....
---- Although this site is https-secure, we cannot guarantee that it or any provided links are safe; be sure your antivirus and other security systems are up to date.
Also see: Environment; coal; energy; stream protection rule; climate change; Clean Power Plan; fuel economy;
Jump to: Sh*t Creek; 2010; 2012; 2014;
2015; 2016; 2017; 2018; 2019; 2020;
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
Back to top
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".
Back to top
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 --
Back to top
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 --
Back to top
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 --
Back to top
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 --
Back to top
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 --
Back to top
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 --
Back to top
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
Back to top
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 --
Back to top
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
Back to top
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/
Back to top
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.
Back to top
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
Back to top
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 --
Back to top
Webpage visitor counts provided by
