Rep. Shontel Brown Sounds Alarm Over GOP Push to Weaken Clean Water Act: ‘We Should Not Go Backwards’ https://shinemycrown.com/rep-shontel-brown-sounds-alarm-over-gop-push-to-weaken-clean-water-act-we-should-not-go-backwards/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #CleanWaterAct #EnvironmentalProtection #ShontelBrown #GOP #ClimateChange
#cleanwateract
In One Week, Trump Moves to Reshape U.S. Environmental Policy
The Trump admin's newly proposed changes to the #CleanWaterAct would reduce or eliminate environmental protections in the Bay Area and across the U.S.
“This proposed rule could strip protections from the vast majority of wetlands in California, which are necessary to protect Bay Area communities from rising seas," as Baykeeper senior scientist Ian Wren said in a statement. "We can’t protect the Bay’s ecosystem and clean water if the law no longer recognizes the wetlands that make it possible."
#EPA Rule Would Drastically Curb Protections for #Wetlands
The proposal could strip federal protections from most U.S. wetlands, some of which feed drinking water systems.
Maxine Joselow
By Maxine Joselow
Reporting from the Environmental Protection Agency’s headquarters in Washington
Nov. 17, 2025
"The Trump administration proposed on Monday to significantly limit the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to limit pollution in wetlands, rivers and other bodies of water across the country.
"The proposed rule could strip federal protections from millions of acres of wetlands and streams, potentially threatening sources of clean drinking water for millions of Americans. It was a victory for a range of business interests that have lobbied to scale back the #CleanWaterAct of 1972, including farmers, home builders, #RealEstateDevelopers, oil drillers and #petrochemical manufacturers."
Read more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/climate/epa-curbs-protections-for-wetlands.html
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/KEbdk
#WaterIsLife #USPol #SacrificeZone #SacrificeZones #CorporateColonialism #EPAFail #Industries #IndustrialUse
#Mining #PollutionSacrificeZones #GreedKills #CapitalismKills #CapitalismMustDie
A 2023 #SCOTUS decision set the stage for the action by limiting the agency’s power to police #wetlands. In the opinion in Sackett v. EPA, Justice #Alito wrote that the #CleanWaterAct allowed the #EPA to regulate only wetlands with a “continuous surface connection” to a “relatively permanent” body of #water.
But he did not explicitly define a “relatively permanent” body of water. Now, the #Trump admin is describing it as a body of water that flows year-round or during the “wet season.”
It was a victory for a range of business interests that have lobbied to scale back the #CleanWaterAct of 1972, including farmers, home builders, real estate developers, #oil drillers & #petrochemical manufacturers.
…Under the #CleanWater Act, companies & individuals must obtain a permit from the #EPA before releasing #pollutants into the nation’s #waterways. They must receive a permit from the US Army Corps of Engineers.…
The #Trump admin proposed Monday to significantly limit the EPA’s authority to limit #pollution in #wetlands, #rivers & other bodies of #water across the country.
The proposed rule could strip federal #protections from millions of acres of wetlands & #streams, potentially threatening sources of clean #DrinkingWater for millions of Americans.
#climate #wildlife #law #EnvironmentalLaw #CleanWaterAct
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/climate/epa-curbs-protections-for-wetlands.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
I am supremely confident that some minister, who is totally not having a massage with a lobbyist or property developer, will always do what's right in order to protect the water supply for communities large and small. No need to be concerned that the sale of Stag & Doe tickets will somehow poison me or cause E.coli deaths. Absolutely trustworthy.
Four Bay Area beaches are among 10 of the dirtiest in CA, as our partners at Heal the Bay report.
And San Francisco accounts for A LOT of coastal California's sewage spills.
Last year, the EPA & CA joined us in suing SFPUC for its 500+ Clean Water Act violations, including bypassing treatment systems and failing to maintain required treatment capacity during storms.
https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/four-bay-area-beaches-ranked-among-dirtiest-21073825.php
#sewage #sewagepollution #sanfrancisco #sfpuc #sf #cleanwateract #waterpollution #bayarea #sfbay #sanfranciscobay @sfgate
The House of Representatives will vote soon on the PERMIT Act, which would abandon Clean Water Act safeguards that protect healthy drinking water, mitigate damage from flooding and drought, and provide fish and wildlife habitat. Urge your representative to vote NO on the PERMIT Act.
Black Louisiana Community Coated in Toxic Fallout After Explosion at Oil Plant
“We need help over here and we’re not getting it,” said a resident of the city where 90 percent of kids live in poverty.
Good environmental news from NPR
"The owners of a large South Bay quarry and cement plant broke ground this week on a massive effort to remove tons of toxic waste from a creek that flows from the Santa Cruz Mountains into the San Francisco Bay."
"Zars noted that the fight against the company was largely driven by community members involved with the Sierra Club, not by local and federal regulators, who he said fell short of adequately holding the company accountable."
“We brought the action even though the California Water Board could have, even though EPA could have,” he said. “But that hadn’t happened.”
Communities Near Data Centers Struggle Now. Trump’s AI Plan Will Make It Worse.
The plan calls for reducing regulations and making federal lands available for constructing data centers.
What good are #TreatyRights if the fish are poisoned?
Monday, July 14, 2025
By George Ochenski, Daily Montanan
"By virtually any measure, the #ConfederatedSalishKootenai Tribal Nation is an incredible success story against all odds. Forcibly removed from their homeland in the Bitterroot Valley, despite not having waged war against the white settlers or army, their own '#TrailOfTears' brought them to the Flathead Valley to live within the boundaries of the vastly reduced lands they retained in the #HellgateTreatyOf1855.
"Although the #HellgateTreaty is widely regarded as one of the best treaties signed by any of the nation’s #IndigenousPeople, even land supposedly reserved for the exclusive habitation of the #SalishKootenai was opened to purchase by non-tribal #settlers by the #DawesAct of 1887.
"The act’s intentions were to allocate reservation lands the tribes already owned to individual families as private property and, as part of the 'civilization' of #NativeAmericans, it required tribal members to register with the federal government to receive their 'allotment.'
"The entire debacle was part of the #AllotmentAndAssimilationEra from 1887 to 1934. Simply put, the federal government’s plan was to force Native Americans to be 'assimilated' into #EuropeanAmerican culture.
"Importantly, any reservation lands not allocated to tribal members was deemed
'surplus' land and opened to purchase by non-tribal settlers. This excursion into #ReservationLands was further exacerbated by the ability of tribal members to sell their allotment parcels to non-tribal members.
"The fracturing of the Salish-Kootenai’s tribal lands through sales to non-tribal members continues to cause serious problems today, including the long and on-going battle to retain their #water, #hunting and #fishing #TreatyRights.
"Article III of the Hellgate Treaty could not be more clear regarding the Tribe’s fishing rights: 'The exclusive right of taking fish in all the streams running through or bordering said reservation is further secured to said Indians; as also the right of taking fish at all usual and accustomed places…'
"Yet, just last month the Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribal Nation issued a very serious warning to tribal members regarding the fish they have treaty rights to catch because they are poisoned.
CSKT Fish Consumption Advisory
"The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes issued a fish consumption advisory on June 24, 2025, warning tribal citizens not to eat fish due to the presence of Polychlorinated biphenyls (#PCBs), #dioxins and #furans at levels deemed unsafe for humans: Source: Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes
"The #FishConsumptionAdvisory urges 'all tribal members to avoid consuming all species and sizes of fish harvested from the lower Clark Fork River from the Bitterroot River near Missoula to the Flathead River near Paradise. Recent testing has confirmed the presence of polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins and furans in fish at levels that are unsafe for consumption by Tribal peoples. It is also advisable to avoid consuming rainbow trout and northern pike harvested from the Bitterroot River and the upper Clark Fork River above the Bitterroot River to Rock Creek, and, to avoid consuming rainbow trout from the Blackfoot River.
"As the Advisory explains: 'These contaminants pose a health risk to all fish consumers, and an even greater health risk to the most sensitive members of the Tribal population including women of child bearing age, pregnant nursing women, and young children. These contaminants have been linked to negative health effects in the immune, and nervous systems and may be associated with birth defects…PCBs and dioxins are classified as probable and definite #HumanCarcinogens, respectively.'
"So what good are treaty fishing rights if you can’t eat the fish because they’re poisoned? Are they really 'rights' — or is this just another in our nation’s long and shameful history of abrogating its treaties with Native Americans?
"Moreover, #Montana’s poison fish affect us all. Just as our government has failed the Salish-Kootenai, they have likewise failed to uphold our rights to the 'swimmable/fishable waters' guaranteed by the #CleanWaterAct — because no one, tribal or non-tribal, is immune to poisoned fish."
#WaterIsLife #TribalNations #NativeAmericanNews #WaterPollution #PoisonedFish #StolenLand #LandBack #EPAFail
We're in court fighting for clean creeks and a healthy Bay! 💪
A few years ago, our investigators found that Sunnyvale and Mountain View's runoff contained high levels of bacteria--around 50x what's legally allowed. What's more, the runoff was being discharged into local creeks. So we sued under the #CleanWaterAct.
Since then, we've tried to work with the cities to address their problems, but they have refused to take responsibility. So now we're in court to prove our case and demand they do right by their residents and the Bay's waters.
Pictured: the Baykeeper team in San Jose before arguing our case against the cities for releasing bacteria pollution into Bay creeks
#sfbay #sanfranciscobay #sunnyvale #mountainview #bacteria #sewage #bacteriapollution #cleanwateract #bacteria
91% of San Francisco Bay fish are contaminated with PFOS forever chemicals. 83% are unsafe to eat daily and 33% are unsafe to eat even at only one half pound per week.
Other contaminants include mercury, leftover from the 1849 gold rush, as well as PCBs, dioxins, selenium, and many others.
Yet there are still many people fishing and eating these fish, mostly lower income immigrants and people of color who are just trying to get by.
https://calmatters.org/environment/water/2025/05/san-francisco-bay-fish-forever-chemicals/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WhatMatters&utm_source=31&utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=$20B Delta Tunnel project sparks fight between Newsom, lawmakers&utm_campaign=WhatMatters
#workingclass #sanfrancisco #pollution #cleanwateract #fishing #immigrants #contamination
Massive gasoline spill at Southern Ute reservation now seeping toward Animas River
Private wells near Durango were flooded with 12 feet of gasoline after 23,000 gallons leaked from a broken Enterprise Products pipeline in December
#environment #cleanwateract #PipelineSafety
https://coloradosun.com/2025/05/09/durango-gasoline-spill-southern-utes-animas-river/
"The first #EarthDay in 1970 sparked a movement in the #UnitedStates that led to the #CleanAirAct, the #CleanWaterAct and the creation of the #EnvironmentalProtectionAgency. Today, the U.S. may be run by those who seem willing to squander the #economicopportunities of the #greeneconomy, but #cities around the world are already seizing them."
https://www.newsweek.com/if-nations-wont-fight-global-warming-cities-can-will-opinion-2061588
#netzero
#greenagenda
#emissions
#pollution
#climatecrisis
#climatechange
#Greencities
#environmentpolicy
#SadiqKhan
Please submit comments on proposed changes to the US Clean Water Act (link below). They're changing THE DEFINITION OF WATER so not all water and wetlands will qualify for protection.
If this change happens, many wetlands and waterways could legally be dumped in, scraped or otherwise harmed.
Only two days left to comment. Please comment & ask for ALL water to be protected. There are only 34 comments on this as of today!
#EPA is legally required to use "best available science" in environmental protection. A former EPA science advisor explains the crucial role of objective, peer-reviewed research in regulation. https://theconversation.com/epa-must-use-the-best-available-science-by-law-but-what-does-that-mean-253209
#PublicHealth #CleanWaterAct
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