More than 40 percent of the country’s rivers and lakes are too polluted for basic activities like swimming and fishing. Great waters from the Mississippi River to the Chesapeake Bay to the Great Lakes are struggling from too much pollution.

Unfortunately, instead of improving water quality, the Bush administration is allowing more pollution into our waters. In January of 2003, the administration adopted a “No Protection” policy that removes basic Clean Water Act safeguards from small streams, wetlands and ponds.

Large rivers and lakes depend on smaller streams and wetlands to supply water, filter out pollution and prevent flooding. The “No Protection” policy threatens these source waters with out-of-control development, pollution and even destruction.

“Streams and wetlands are the lifeblood of America’s waterways,” said U.S. PIRG Clean Water Advocate Christy Leavitt. “To clean up treasured waters like the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay, source waters must remain protected."

As a result of the “No Protection” policy, tens of thousands of miles of streams, millions of acres of wetlands and thousands of lakes and ponds are in danger of losing federal Clean Water Act protection.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 20 million acres of wetlands—20 percent of the wetlands in the continental U.S.—are at risk.

As the source waters are damaged or destroyed, the rivers, lakes and coastal waters they feed will be harmed, leading to more pollution in our great waters. Regional EPA officials estimate that more than half the streams in the Chesapeake Bay area could lose protection as a result of the “No Protection” policy, leading the way for an even larger dead zone in the Bay. “Instead of taking away clean water protections, Congress and the White House should clarify the original intent of the Clean Water Act, which was to eliminate pollution and restore the health and integrity of our waters,” said Leavitt.

Congress, White House, Courts To Decide

To protect our waters, U.S. PIRG is calling for the Bush administration to immediately drop its “No Protection” policy. They’re calling on Congress to safeguard all waters by passing the Clean Water Authority Restoration Act.

Introduced by Representatives Oberstar (MN), Leach (IA), Dingell (MI), Boehlert (NY) and 120 of their colleagues in the House and Senator Feingold (WI) in the Senate, S. 912 and H.R. 1356 would re-affirm the power of the Clean Water Act to protect waterways both great and small. In February, PIRG activists from across the country came to Washington D.C. to meet with members of Congress, urging them to support the bill.

Unfortunately, the Clean Water Act faces opposition in the Supreme Court. If petitioners in Carabell v. United States and Rapanos v. United States prevail, nearly 60 percent of U.S. streams, which are surface waters that provide drinking water for more than 110 million Americans, could be excluded from Clean Water Act protections.

An unprecedented array of state attorneys general, former EPA administrators, members of Congress, environmental advocates and hunting and fishing groups have sided with the Justice Department to support continued protections for wetlands, streams, tributaries and rivers. U.S. PIRG expects a decision on the case in late spring.