Defend Clean Water Today [Deadline Extended]!

The Clean Water Act is responsible for the safe water quality and many of the dam releases paddlers enjoy. In 2015 the Environmental Protection Agency created the Clean Water Rule based on robust science and vast public comment to ensure the Clean Water Act was protecting our nation’s waterways as intended. Rules guide how agencies implement laws like the Clean Water Act. The EPA is now proposing to repeal their 2015 Clean Water Rule. Repealing the rule is the EPA’s first planned step to reduce protections for our nation’s rivers, public health, and recreation economies.

American Whitewater supports the 2015 Clean Water Rule, and many paddlers shared supportive comments with the EPA during its development. Predictably, the rule was challenged in court, and those cases are well on their way through the court system. These cases will either fully endorse the rule, or require changes. Either way, the result will be a rule that is legal and that is good for rivers and communities.

Repealing the Clean Water Rule would cause the EPA to fall back on old rules, which left a lot of questions about which waters were protected under the Clean Water Act. The EPA intends to follow their repeal with an effort to replace the 2015 rule with a weaker rule.

The Clean Water Act must apply to our Nation’s headwaters consistently to protect downstream states, people, fish, and property rights. Your comments to the EPA and your political representatives in Washington DC can help protect the Clean Water Rule, and more importantly, clean water. Tell them not to repeal the Clean Water Rule, and to defend it in court.

We’ve made it super easy: Speak Up For Clean Water! Please personalize the messages if you have time - it makes a big difference.

The deadline for comments is September 27, 2017 [This is reflective of a 30-day extention from the original deadline].