WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s draft rule narrowing the scope of the Clean Water Act will protect fewer streams and wetlands from pollution and destruction than at any point since the law’s passage in 1972. The proposed rule goes further than required by a 2023 Supreme Court decision that already greatly restricted which water bodies can be protected under the law. 
 
“We’ve forgotten that we have clean water because of the Clean Water Act,” said Jim Murphy, the National Wildlife Federation’s senior director of legal advocacy. “This rule would further strip protection from streams that flow into the rivers and lakes that supply our drinking water. The wetlands now at risk of being bulldozed filter our water supplies and protect us from floods. 

“Revoking these long-standing protections will hit families in their pocketbooks by raising water treatment costs and home insurance rates. This rule will increase the risk of elevated nitrates and cyanotoxins in drinking water, harming our health. Over time, the impacts to water quality, wildlife and our way of life will be significant. The crisis facing aquatic wildlife will deepen and it will become harder to find places to fish, boat and swim.”