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Protect Our Nation's At-Risk Waters

For more than 30 years, the Clean Water Act has provided critical protections for our streams, lakes, wetlands, beaches, and other waters we depend on for safe drinking water, habitat for fish and wildlife, and recreation.

But long-standing federal protections for these waters are now in jeopardy. This June, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a very deeply divided ruling that could open the floodgates to polluters that are taking every opportunity to hack away at laws designed to protect and restore our rivers, lakes, wetlands, and streams.

But Congress has an answer, and now is the time to tell your Senators and Representatives that they need to reaffirm the objective of the Clean Water Act, and co-sponsor the “Clean Water Authority Restoration Act” today!

Personalized letters are much more effective: Why is protecting our nation's at-risk waters important to you?

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    Sample Letter for Campaign

    Subject: Protect Our Nation's At-Risk Waters

    Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

    I am writing to request that you cosponsor of The Clean Water Authority Restoration Act (S. 912/H.R. 1356) to reaffirm the primary objective of the Clean Water Act: protecting all of our nation's waters from pollution and destruction.

    In June 2006, the Supreme Court issued a plurality decision in the most important Clean Water Act case in the history of this important environmental law. I am disappointed that the court decided not to allow the greatest protections for lakes, rivers, ponds, streams and wetlands that provide drinking water supplies to one in every three Americans.

    Developers, the oil industry, and other polluters are seeking to radically narrow the scope of the Clean Water Act so that it would only provide protections for water bodies large enough to support commercial shipping. This would leave the vast majority of the nation's streams, rivers, lakes, ponds and wetlands without any federal anti-pollution protections at all.

    The Supreme Court decision calls for Congress to take action, clarifying once and for all that the Clean Water Act should protect all waters of the United States. Congress must live up to its responsibility to ensure that all communities have safe and healthy waters by passing The Clean Water Authority Restoration Act.

    If you have not already, please cosponsor this bill today.

    Sincerely,

    Campaign Launched:
    February 15, 2006


    Background Information

    Since the 1970s, the Clean Water Act's implementing regulations have explicitly included broad protections for the nation's waters, including the many streams, rivers, ponds, wetlands and lakes that supply drinking water, recreation opportunities, commercial fishing, and wildlife habitat. The Clean Water Act is one of nation’s strongest environmental laws, but recently has been under a strategic and coordinated attack by developers, the oil industry and industrial polluters seeking more relaxed protections against harmful chemicals that will destroy our nation’s waters.

    A recent Supreme Court ruling in two Clean Water Act cases failed to clarify that all waters of the United States are meant to be covered by the law. This decision reinforces the need for Congress to step in and state once and for all that this law is meant to protect our waters from harmful pollution.

    The U.S. Supreme Court and Rapanos-Carabell:

    photo of a stream in West VirginiaOn June 19, 2006, a plurality opinion by four justices of the Supreme Court advocated drastic cutback in the protections of the Clean Water Act. If Justices Scalia, Thomas, Roberts and Alito in the cases of Rapanos v. United States and United States v. Carabell had managed to garner a fifth vote, they would have opened the floodgates for pollution into streams, rivers, lakes, wetlands and other waters that provide drinking water for one in every three Americans. As the matter stands, this split decision, with Justice Kennedy agreeing that a lower court should revisit the case but on narrower grounds than the plurality, will likely lead to more attacks by industry and polluters seeking to weaken the protections of the Clean Water Act.

    The petitioners, John Rapanos and June Carabell, challenged federal jurisdiction over wetlands on properties that they wanted to fill and turn into a shopping mall and condominium complex, respectively. In both cases, the lower courts had ruled that the Clean Water Act protected these waters from unregulated pollution and destruction.

    photo of a kid with a fishJoined by several industry groups, Rapanos and Carabell appealed their cases to the Supreme Court, where Rapanos in particular challenged federal jurisdiction over all waters other than “traditional navigable waters” capable of supporting commercial shipping, and wetlands directly touching or abutting those waterbodies. The petitioners hoped to win a ruling that would drastically narrow the act’s definition of protected “waters of the United States.” Because that phrase applies to the entire Clean Water Act, such a ruling would undermine all of the law’s restrictions on water pollution discharges. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, almost 60 percent of all streams in the country could lose federal protections if the Supreme Court were to cut intermittent rivers and streams out of the Clean Water Act, as the Scalia plurality proposed to do.

    An unprecedented array of supporters joining the Bush administration in support of continued Clean Water Act protections were 34 attorneys general (from 33 states and the District of Columbia), the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies; four former Environmental Protection Agency administrators; nine members of Congress who helped pass the 1972 Clean Water Act; more than a dozen outdoor recreation organizations and businesses; and more than 30 local and national environmental, conservation and public health organizations.

    The Clean Water Authority Restoration Act:

    The Supreme Court’s split ruling opens the door for more challenges to clean water protections by polluters and industry. Congress now has the opportunity to pass legislation that will clarify that all waters of the United States should be protected under federal law. This bipartisan legislation has been co-sponsored by 163 Representatives and 16 Senators, and would simply adopt the existing 25-year-old regulatory definition of which waters are "waters of the United States" protected under the act, restoring critically needed protections for these at-risk waters.

    Write your representatives and tell them to co-sponsor this important bill! Clean waters now depend on Congress to take action and pass the Clean Water Authority Restoration Act. Check out the text of the Clean Water Authority Restoration Act (PDF)

    • Please, take action and ask your members of Congress to support protecting our nation's at-risk waters!

    ¹ This brief was signed by the attorney's general of 33 states and the District of Columbia, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, as well as the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.