Thousands of the nation’s largest water polluters are outside the Clean Water Act’s reach because the Supreme Court has left uncertain which waterways are protected by that law, according to interviews with regulators.Totally unacceptable.
How did this happen?
The court rulings causing these problems focused on language in the Clean Water Act that limited it to “the discharge of pollutants into the navigable waters” of the United States. For decades, “navigable waters” was broadly interpreted by regulators to include many large wetlands and streams that connected to major rivers.However it's being argued that ...
But the two decisions suggested that waterways that are entirely within one state, creeks that sometimes go dry, and lakes unconnected to larger water systems may not be “navigable waters” and are therefore not covered by the act — even though pollution from such waterways can make its way into sources of drinking water.Bold emphasis mine. This pollution will still make its way into sources of drinking water.
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3 comments:
What this is bullcrap! Thanks for the post.
Saldy, It's old Bull crap leftover from early in the Bush Administration. The first decision that uncorked this mess was against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who were trying to regulate so called pothole wetlands which have no surface connection to anything, but are connected underground. Lacking "navigability" the Corps was shot down.
"lakes unconnected to larger water systems"
I'm not that kind of scientist, but I at least know enough about water to know that ANY lake is connected to a larger water system.
I've got a few colleagues with the EPA and they have talked about how their hands are tied with so many regulatory issues. As scientist they can show that something is unsafe, but the policy makers at the EPA can still choose to ignore them and not acknowledge their results when making policies.
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