Clean Water Act Faces Attack Colorado Fights Back
by Colorado TU Staff
S
ince its adoption in the 1970s, the Clean Water Act has led to dramatic improvements in water quality nationwide. Through the Act, Congress set forth a national goal to secure fishable, swimmable waters by restoring and maintaining their chemical, physical, and biological integrity. Now, the law that has served America well for nearly 50 years is being rolled back.
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High Country Angler • Summer 2020
In April, the Army Corps of Engineers and Environmental Protection Agency issued a new rule to significantly narrow the scope of protections of our nation’s streams and wetlands. Notably, the proposal strips protection from all ephemeral streams and likely many intermittent streams. These smaller headwater systems are the feeders of our larger rivers and streams, and pollution and habitat destruction allowed upstream in these waterways will make its way downstream to the larger rivers on which our fisheries and communities rely. Similarly, the new rule strips protection from millions of acres of wetlands – estimated to be as much as 50% of our nation’s wetlands – harming those critical pieces of functioning watersheds that play a key role in groundwater recharge and pollution filtration. The Clean Water rollback puts millions of stream miles at risk nationwide – streams that contribute to the drinking water supplies of 117 million Americans and provide essential fish and wildlife habitat that support a robust outdoor recreation economy worth $887 billion. In Colorado, approximately 70%
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