{"id":135930,"date":"2022-02-08T09:17:09","date_gmt":"2022-02-08T17:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=135930"},"modified":"2022-02-08T09:17:09","modified_gmt":"2022-02-08T17:17:09","slug":"attorney-general-bonta-urges-epa-to-expand-clean-water-act-restrictions-on-nations-waterways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=135930","title":{"rendered":"Attorney General Bonta Urges EPA to Expand Clean Water Act Restrictions on Nation’s Waterways"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sacramento, CA…California Attorney General Rob Bonta, leading a multistate coalition along with New York Attorney General Letitia James, urged\u00a0the Biden Administration\u00a0to\u00a0repeal\u00a0a Trump-era rule drastically curtailing protections under the Clean Water Act.\u00a0Under the 2020 rule, more than half of all wetlands and at least 18% of all streams\u00a0across the United States\u00a0were left without federal protections. Western states like California were even harder hit, with 35% of all streams deprived of federal protections as a result of the\u00a02020 rule. In the comments, the coalition\u00a0supports\u00a0the Biden Administration’s\u00a0proposed\u00a0<\/wbr>regulation to\u00a0restore the 1980s definition of “waters of the United States” and\u00a0urges the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)\u00a0and the U.S.\u00a0Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps)\u00a0to take swift action to\u00a0develop\u00a0a more expansive definition that is consistent with\u00a0science and the law, addresses the impacts of climate change, and serves environmental justice communities.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a bone-dry January, California appears unlikely to escape yet another devastating drought,\u201d\u00a0said Attorney General Bonta.\u00a0<\/b>\u201cThese conditions are only going to worsen as the impacts of\u00a0climate change grow increasingly severe.\u00a0For the West, that means more and more waterways that do not flow year-round. The EPA\u00a0and Army Corps’\u00a0definition of ‘waters of the United States’ must reflect that reality.\u00a0I urge the Biden Administration to move swiftly to\u00a0expand\u00a0protected waters under\u00a0the Clean Water Act and to\u00a0take into account\u00a0environmental justice and climate change impacts in doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough the California Water Boards have broad authority to protect waters under state law, the definition of waters of the United States is essential to effective implementation of California\u2019s water quality program,\u201d\u00a0said E. Joaquin Esquivel, Chair of the State Water Resources Control Board.<\/b>\u00a0\u201cOur state experienced significant and costly disruptions to our regulatory programs because of the 2020 rule and restoring the earlier definition of WOTUS will ensure that these programs have the stability they need to help the state confront drought and climate change impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The definition of \u201cwaters of the United States\u201d under the Clean Water Act is critical to maintaining a strong federal foundation for water pollution controls\u00a0that preserve\u00a0the integrity of our waters.\u00a0While the Clean Water Act has resulted in dramatic improvements to water quality in the United States, its overriding objective has not yet been achieved. Many of the Nation\u2019s\u00a0waters remain polluted.<\/p>\n

The 2020\u00a0rule made the Clean Water Act\u2019s goals further out of reach, threatening entire watersheds,\u00a0including\u00a04.8 million miles of streams\u00a0and\u00a016.3 million acres of non-floodplain wetlands.\u00a0In May 2020, a\u00a0coalition led by\u00a0California and New York\u00a0filed a lawsuit challenging the unlawful rule. In the comments, the coalition supports\u00a0the Biden Administration’s proposal\u00a0to undo the\u00a02020\u00a0rule and urges the Biden Administration to adopt a\u00a0more\u00a0protective\u00a0definition of \u201cwaters of the United States\u201d that takes into account environmental justice and climate change and is consistent with science and the law.<\/p>\n

All Americans are entitled to clean water for drinking, recreation, and\u00a0countless other uses\u00a0that sustain our life\u00a0and economic activities,\u00a0but many of the most vulnerable and\u00a0already overburdened communities\u00a0continue to\u00a0lack access to this fundamental resource. In the comments, the coalition specifically addresses the need for the Biden Administration to adopt a\u00a0new definition of \u201cwaters of the United States\u201d that strives to eliminate these inequities. In addition, as water quality and quantity continue to change as a result of\u00a0more frequent,\u00a0severe,\u00a0and unpredictable weather events,\u00a0the coalition argues that it is essential that\u00a0the\u00a0new definition\u00a0be based on a consideration of the consequences of climate change.<\/p>\n

Attorneys General Bonta and James are joined by the attorneys general of Connecticut, Illinois, the District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin as well as the California State Water Resources Control Board and the City of New York in filing the letter.<\/p>\n

A copy of the letter can be found\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sacramento, CA…California Attorney General Rob Bonta, leading a multistate coalition along with New York Attorney General Letitia James, urged\u00a0the Biden Administration\u00a0to\u00a0repeal\u00a0a Trump-era rule drastically curtailing protections under the Clean Water Act.\u00a0Under the 2020 rule, more than half of all wetlands and at least 18% of all streams\u00a0across the United States\u00a0were left without federal protections. Western […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":135931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,16,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-law-enforcement","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/EPA-300x300-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=135930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135932,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135930\/revisions\/135932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/135931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=135930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=135930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=135930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}