Congress to block protections for two thirds of California’s streams

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Environment California

Sacramento—Two thirds of streams across California could remain vulnerable to development and pollution under a bill expected to win approval today by the U.S. House of Representatives. The waters affected flow into the San Francisco Bay and provide drinking water for over 7.3 million Californians.

The anticipated vote follows the release of the Summer Fun Index last week, which shows that Californians hold more than 2.6 million fishing licenses, permits, and tags.

“Given how much Californians use and enjoy them, we should be doing everything we can to protect our rivers and streams,” said Nathan Weaver, Clean Water Organizer with Environment California. “Yet the polluters and their allies in Congress are doing everything they can to keep our waters in jeopardy.”

The bill, HR 5078, would bar the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from restoring Clean Water Act protections to more than half of the nation’s rivers and streams. This includes almost 140,000 miles of streams in California, left in limbo for nearly a decade after a pair of Supreme Court decisions created a loophole in the law.

In March, EPA proposed a rule to close this loophole and again safeguard under federal law the state’s smaller headwaters and streams and along with 20 million acres of wetlands across the country.

A broad coalition of clean water advocates, farmers, mayors, small businesses, and thousands of Californians have heralded the EPA move, but agribusinesses, oil and gas companies, and other polluters affected by the rule have waged a bitter campaign against it.

“Instead of siding with our rivers and the Californians who love to fish, boat and swim in them,” said Weaver, “today Congress is siding with the polluters.”

The attack blocks both the proposed rule and anything that might resemble it, and delays any effort to clarify the scope of the Clean Water Act for up to two years. The White House has threatened to veto the measure, whose prospects are less certain in the Senate.