Clean Water Restoration Act
Clean Water Act Prospects for the 111th Congress
New bills to ensure that isolated wetlands such as prairie potholes and playa lakes are protected will be introduced in 2009, and Ducks Unlimited will be working with Members of Congress and their staffs to ensure the best outcome for protecting waterfowl habitat.
Please urge your Members of Congress to pass a bill to fix the Clean Water Act – urge your Governors, Attorney Generals, and state Fish and Wildlife agencies to also ask your Congressional delegation as well.
Congress introduced a bill in 2007 called the Clean Water Restoration Act to restore the Clean Water Act to it’s original intent to protect rivers, streams, and wetlands and keep harmful pollutants from Americans’ drinking water. The bill would still protect farmers and ranchers from costly and confusing regulation like the original Clean Water Act, and would also free them from the new regulations that have hamstrung the permitting process.Protecting wetlands and waterfowl habitat has always been Ducks Unlimited's mission – and Members of Congress are trying to help by introducing the Clean Water Restoration Act (CWRA) that would protect isolated wetlands like prairie potholes and playa lakes that are vital to nesting and wintering waterfowl.
CWRA is a bill that would restore the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers' ability to enforce the Clean Water Act on lakes, streams and wetlands. These protections had been whittled away by several Supreme Court Cases over the past few years, and the CWRA would ensure that prairie potholes, playa lakes and other valuable wetlands are protected for people, waterfowl and wildlife.
History
In 2001 the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision, Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County (SWANCC) v. United States Army Corps of Engineers. The decision reduces the protection of isolated wetlands under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (CWA), which assigns the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) authority to issue permits for the discharge of dredge or fill material into "waters of the United States." Prior to the SWANCC decision, the Corps had adopted a regulatory definition of "waters of the U.S." that afforded federal protection for almost all of the nation's wetlands. Therefore, a narrow and literal reading of the SWANCC decision meant that “isolated, non-navigable, intrastate waters,” would no longer be afforded CWA protection if use by migratory birds was the sole basis for asserting federal jurisdiction.
In 2006 another Supreme Court Case, Rapanos v. Carabell, further limited the scope of the CWA, and the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers released regulations that reflected those limitations. In addition to eliminating CWA protections from millions of acres of geographically isolated wetlands, the new regulations also created a tangle of red tape that landowners and federal agencies must wade through to get permits for any projects related to wetlands.
For More informtation see:
More information on the Clean Water Restoration Act: