New EPA Guidelines Will Put Wetlands at Risk

 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
Contact:
Sharyn Stein, Environmental Defense Fund, 202-572-3396, sstein@edf.org
  
(Washington, DC – December 4, 2008) – Congress should act quickly to strengthen the Clean Water Act in the wake of ecologically irresponsible new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines that were just released, according to Environmental Defense Fund.
 
EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers issued the new guidance memo yesterday with diminished protections for many wetlands and other waterways. The guidelines follow a controversial Supreme Court decision in 2006, Rapanos v. United States, that the court this week declined to clarify. The court decision has created confusion about the EPA’s powers under the Clean Water Act, and ultimately compelled the creation of the new guidelines that environmentalists say will put America’s waterways and wetlands at risk.
 
“The new guidelines prove once again that we need Congress to act on this issue, clarify its intent in the Clean Water Act, and protect our nation’s wetlands,” said Jim Tripp, general counsel for Environmental Defense Fund. “The Rapanos decision has caused a bureaucratic nightmare, but it is a Supreme Court decision and EPA has no choice but to obey it. Congress, however, can – and should – step in to fix the problem.”
 
For decades, the Clean Water Act was understood to encompass almost all bodies of water in the United States. However, the Rapanos decision redefined the Act’s jurisdiction much more narrowly. A large amount of EPA’s available budget will now need to be dedicated to determining jurisdiction over waters. The result is that many previously protected waters and wetlands are now vulnerable to dredging and filling, with cumulative and long-term consequences for the quality of our nation’s ecosystems.
 
“Rapanos was an impractical and overreaching decision,” said Mary Kelly, Vice President of Rivers and Deltas for Environmental Defense Fund. “EPA’s unfortunate new guidelines will harm vital wetlands and waste federal resources. Environmental Defense Fund urges Congress to enact legislation quickly so we can fix this problem in an environmentally responsible way.”
 

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