The Clean Water Act is a landmark policy because it recognizes that the most important infrastructure for protecting our water is not our cities, or human-built systems. Rather it is the natural ecosystems- the forests, wetlands, streams, rivers and riparian areas that filter, store, and regulate water flows. Therefore protecting clean water and the invaluable water-related ecosystem services critical to human health and to economies requires protecting the natural ecosystems that provide it.
Unfortunately the EPA’s proposed changes will weaken the Clean Water Act, undermine protections for the waterways and ecosystems that provision and filter our nation’s waters, and make it easier for polluters to degrade US waters. The EPA should fulfill its mission to protect the environment and public health rather than setting them up for further degradation that we cannot afford.
