"The Environmental Protection Agency has made it easier for cities to keep dumping raw sewage into rivers by letting them delay or otherwise change federally imposed fixes to their sewer systems, according to interviews with local officials, water utilities and their lobbyists."
"Critics say the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) water policy unveiled Thursday is one of the biggest rollbacks to water policy in decades, but it’s tough to know the extent of its impact because of challenges that come with mapping America’s waterways."
"Defying environmentalists and public health advocates, the Trump administration on Thursday announced the replacement of Obama-era water protections with a significantly weaker set of regulations that lifts limits on how much pollution can be dumped into small streams and wetlands."
"Trump administration officials took a victory lap after they unveiled their final revisions to Clean Water Act protections for waterways and wetlands. But the Waters of the U.S., or WOTUS, replacement rule that EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers completed yesterday must now survive a possible Democratic win in the 2020 presidential election and an expected inundation of challenges in the courts."
"A final rule unveiled by the Trump administration today eliminates Clean Water Act protections for the majority of the nation's wetlands and more than 18% of streams."
"The Trump administration on Thursday will finalize a rule to strip away environmental protections for streams, wetlands and other water bodies, handing a victory to farmers, fossil fuel producers and real estate developers who said Obama-era rules had shackled them with onerous and unnecessary burdens."
"A flash of red streaked through the trees: a vermilion flycatcher. The brightly colored bird chirped and trilled, adding to a chorus that rang from the towering trees. ... The ecosystem depends on the river, and the river itself depends on an unseen source. Much of its flow is fed by groundwater, emerging from the aquifer in springs and seeps, sustaining the river."
"Get ready for a surge of lawsuits over the Trump administration's decision to walk back Obama-era protections for wetlands and streams."
"The National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, and nine other groups sued Oct. 23 in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, accusing the federal government of breaking the law in its rollback of the 2015 Clean Water Rule."
"California sued the Trump administration today over EPA's refusal to extend Clean Water Act protections to salt ponds in San Francisco Bay."
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