Polluter allies unveil latest bid to strip clean water protections

Media Releases

Media Contacts
John Rumpler

Clean Water Director and Senior Attorney, Environment America

Environment America

WASHINGTON, DC – Moving on a top priority for corporate agribusinesses, Sen. Jodi Ernst (R-Iowa) and the bulk of her republican colleagues yesterday introduced a measure to invalidate the Obama administration’s new Clean Water Rule. Offered under the Congressional Review Act, the binding resolution would block protections for streams that feed drinking water supplies for 1 in 3 Americans.

“By trying to undo the biggest step for clean water in a decade, Sen. Ernst and her colleagues are siding squarely with the polluters,” said John Rumpler, senior attorney for Environment America. “We’re counting on the rest of the Senate to side with our rivers, lakes and streams, and with the American people who want their drinking water protected.”

The Clean Water Rule addresses loopholes created by Supreme Court decisions that left more than half the nation’s streams and millions of acres of wetlands without guaranteed safeguards under the Clean Water Act, restoring protection to streams that flow into iconic waters from the Puget Sound to the Chesapeake Bay.