Time Running Out to Comment on Repeal of the EPA Clean Water Rule
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TCWN Urges Tennesseans to Voice Their Opposition to the Clean Water Rule Repeal
August 16, 2017 – Tennessee Clean Water Network Executive Director Renee Hoyos said today that time is running out for Tennesseans to oppose the repeal of the Clean Water Rule.
“Citizens have only until August 28 to register their comments on the EPA proposal to repeal the definition of ‘water of the United States’ or more commonly known as the ‘Clean Water Rule,’” Hoyos said. “EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is using the shortest legal time period for public comment [D1] in order to ram this repeal through the rulemaking process.”
“The easiest way to let your voice be heard on this issue is to go to the EPA website at https://www.epa.gov/wotus-rule/rulemaking-process#Comment and follow the links to the public comment section. I urge all Tennesseans to take just a few minutes to comment in support of clean water in the Volunteer State,” Hoyos added.
The Clean Water Rule was developed and issued in 2015 after years of scientific research, public hearings and comments by hundreds of thousands of citizens concerned about the environment. More than 80 percent of the comments received regarding the Clean Water Rule were supportive of its implementation.
But EPA’s Pruitt wants to repeal this rule with no scientific research, no hearings and only a 30-day comment period. This 30-day comment period is the only way for citizens to make their voices heard on this attempt to rollback regulations to protect the nation’s waterways.
The current Clean Water Rule is designed to protect America’s drinking water from pollution. Millions of people get their drinking water from lakes, rivers and aquifers - water resources that are clearly covered by the Clean Water Act. In Tennessee, 60% of our streams are headwater streams. Weakening the definition of waters puts over half the waterbodies in our state at risk.
However, about one out of every three people get their drinking water from a water source that is temporary or flows intermittently. The scientific studies conducted by EPA clearly show a connection between small and/or temporary streams and healthy flows in larger bodies of water like lakes and rivers.
Quoting from the EPA study abstract, “The scientific literature unequivocally demonstrates that streams, regardless of their size or frequency of flow, are connected to downstream waters and strongly influence their function.”
“It is important to protect these sources of water, as the more polluted they are, the more it costs to remove containments and other nasty things at the water treatment plants,” Hoyos added. “Constructing new or expanding existing facilities is an expensive proposition, so it is better for the taxpayer to stop any polluting activities at the source.”
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[D1]I’m not sure to what this is referring. There is the federal minimum 30-day period. He can’t shorten that.
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