Victory for Our Water Is Sweet

By Miriam Gordon, California State Director - Follow Miriam on Twitter (@CleanH2OMiriam) Yesterday's announcement by US EPA that it has finalized its rulemaking and restored Clean Water Act protections for drinking water sources that serve 117 million Americans is nothing short of historic. I can remember when I first came to Clean Water Action, at the end of 2008. Our big campaign was restoring the Clean Water Act - we called it CWARA back then. In 2008, as I learned about the opposition that was engaged to stop EPA from a rule-making to clarify what waters would be protected under the Clean Water Act, it seemed crazy to me  that we even had to fight this fight. Isn't protecting the waters that support our "navigable" waterways a no-brainer? Didn't everyone know that America's drinking water sources are all connected to a large network of streams, rivers, and groundwater that feed them?  I was shocked by the hubris of industries that were arguing for the right to destroy wetlands. They were fighting to pollute or destroy headwaters and streams that (especially in the arid West) are seasonal and run dry in the summer months. All of it was based on a literal interpretation of "navigable waters" - language that appears in the statute. Historically, Clean Water Act regulations have taken the approach that the navigable waters of the U.S. can't be protected without ensuring that the waters that support them are also protected. It's impossible to have clean drinking water without such an approach. Most drinking water can be easily contaminated without protections for the groundwater, wetlands, headwaters, and streams that feed it. It wasn't surprising that developers, timber harvesters, oil companies, and a whole bunch of other industries don't really care much about wetlands, habitat, and protecting fish and wildlife. But it was shocking to hear politicians speak for industry against clean drinking water! When President Obama appointed Lisa Jackson as EPA Administrator during his first term, Jackson was called in to testify before Congress practically every week just to defend our nation's most basic environmental protections, including the Clean Water Act. During what seemed like thousands of hearings, members of Congress spoke of only EPA’s so-called "overreach" in protecting water- i.e. water resources that are used for drinking water.  They completely ignored the facts. It took years for EPA to fix the Clean Water Act- not because they were reluctant to do so, but because in this political climate, the beleaguered agency has to go through endless and outrageous administrative processes to do anything. They needed a tsunami of public support to help overcome the outrageously strong – well-funded- voice of industries that opposed the action. Clean Water Action helped mobilize that support. We helped submit thousands of letters from Californians to EPA, along with more than 120,000 across the nation, in support of the rule. I am proud to work for an organization that took this issue to the people and helped get it done. Today, victory is sweet. Tomorrow, on to the next battle for clean water and safe communities.