Send the pollution downstream
The National Resources Defense Council reports:
When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers issued the Clean Water Rule in May 2015, they clarified, after decades of confusion and debate, that tens of millions of acres of smaller waterways across the United States were, in fact, eligible for protection under the Clean Water Act. Less than two years later, in February 2017, after several failed attempts by Senate Republicans to kill the rule, President Trump signed an executive order directing the EPA and the Army Corps to begin the process of repealing the Clean Water Rule, with the aim of eliminating it altogether. Today, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt indicated that the two agencies will send a proposal to repeal the rule.
“This proposal strikes directly at public health,” said NRDC president Rhea Suh. “It would strip out needed protections for the streams that feed drinking water sources for one in every three Americans. Clean water is too important for that. We’ll stand up to this reckless attack on our waters and health.”
The Clean Water Rule, also known as the Waters of the United States (WOTUS), limits pollution in the streams and wetlands that feed our larger waterways—critical for safeguarding the drinking water that more than 117 million Americans rely on and for ensuring that people across the nation can continue to swim in and otherwise enjoy these bodies of water. “The Clean Water Rule provides the clarity we need to protect clean water. Its repeal would make it easier for irresponsible developers and others to contaminate our waters and send the pollution downstream.” Suh said.
Well that’s the goal, isn’t it – to take the burden off developers and corporations and put it back on the streams and wetlands and all the animals and people who depend on them.
Ophelia, it sounds like you like animals more than people!
Seriously, that’s the comment I hear all the time, because I teach environmental science. Why people can’t realize that this matters to PEOPLE as well, I’ll never understand. Too many people think that the resources are all about making money, and also that business will protect us. Yeah, that worked so well in the middle of last century, when Londoners and people in Appalachia were literally dying from the “killer fogs”. And anyone who thinks business is a great protector of people and other living things hasn’t read enough Charles Dickens.
Whether Trump likes it or not, Nature always bats last, and WOTUS trumps POTUS. (I use that ironic card player’s adjective with no hesitation at all in this benighted case.) In fact, if I were going today in a street demonstration over it, I would carry a placard saying simply:
WOTUS
TRUMPs
POTUS.
Worth a try: I could go back to being a Christian and pray ‘Lord, if anyone in the US is to catch gastroenteritis from shit in their drinking water, please let it be Trump.’ Extreme outside chance, I know. But with God’s help, anything is possible. “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.” I think St Paul said that.
;-)
I wonder how much these regulations inconvenienced the operation of Trump’s US golf courses? I could see him scrapping the rules for that reason alone.
No. It was Tennyson.