Media Center

Environmentalists Sue to Protect Water Quality

December 19, 2014 Press Release

WASHINGTON (December 19, 2014)— The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Environmental Defense Center (EDC) today announced they have sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to strengthen standards to prevent pollution from stormwater, one of the nation’s most widespread…

Clean Water Proposal Will Help Families, Homeowners Get Safe Drinking Water

November 17, 2014 Press Release

WASHINGTON (November 17, 2014)—A proposed new clean water rule will help ensure Americans have safe drinking water by closing a critical gap in the country’s pollution laws, the Natural Resources Defense Council said.

Craft Brewers Support EPA Bolstering Protections for American Waters—And Beer!

November 14, 2014 Press Release

CHICAGO (November 14, 2014) – Some of the nation’s most respected and beloved breweries weighed in on the national debate over clean water protections today. Thirty-two members of the “Brewers for Clean Water” campaign signed onto a comment letter in…

NRDC’s “Exaggerator” Video Takes on Polluters’ Wild Claims about Proposed Clean Water Rule

November 12, 2014 Press Release

WASHINGTON (November 12, 2014) – The Natural Resources Defense Council launched a video campaign today taking a comic jab at big corporate polluters’ hyperbolic claims about the proposed Clean Water Protection Rule, which is intended to restore protections for waterways…

Additional Opportunity to Provide Input on Critical Clean Water Proposal

October 6, 2014 Press Release

WASHINGTON (October 6, 2014)—The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers today extended for a second time, until November 14, the public comment period on the proposed Clean Water Protection rule, which would restore Clean Water Act…

EPA Endorses New & Improved Beach Water Quality Safety Threshold

July 31, 2014 Press Release

WASHINGTON (July 31, 2014) – In a move designed to protect more than 180 million people who visit America’s coastal and Great Lakes beaches every year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced stronger National Beach Guidance for all…

Review Period for Deeply Flawed Bay Delta Conservation Plan Ends Today

July 29, 2014 Press ReleaseCalifornia

LOS ANGELES (July 29, 2014) – The opportunity for public input on the controversial, poorly-designed Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) ends today after a 228-day public review and comment period, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The proposed…

NRDC Report Helps Guide Major Fuel Buyers to Sustainable Biofuels Procurement

July 29, 2014 Press Release

WASHINGTON (July 29, 2014)—Amid increasing interest in alternative transportation fuels, a new report shows how federal agencies and other large commercial customers can buy sustainably produced biofuels and avoid those linked to major deforestation, destroyed wildlife habitat and fouled waterways.

California Tackles Wasteful Outdoor Watering

July 15, 2014 Press ReleaseCalifornia

SACRAMENTO (July 15, 2014) – The State Water Resources Control Board today voted to adopt mandatory emergency drought measures to curtail wasteful uses of water outdoors and help safeguard our future water supply. The new statewide rules require city utilities…

Farm Bureau Ducks NRDC Challenge to Debate Clean Water Rule

July 15, 2014 Press Release

WASHINGTON (July 15, 2014)—The American Farm Bureau Federation has tried to duck a challenge from the Natural Resources Defense Council to a public debate over the bureau’s willful misrepresentations regarding a new clean water proposal, which is now under assault…

Supreme Court Greenlights California’s Clean Fuels Plan

June 30, 2014 Press Release

WASHINGTON (June 30, 2014) – In a big win for the fight against climate change, the Supreme Court today declined oil and ethanol companies’ request to review a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that upheld California’s Low Carbon Fuel…

NRDC Poll: Latinos want the government to protect water from pollution

June 23, 2014 Press Release

WASHINGTON (June 23, 2014)— As Senate Republicans try to kill recent steps by the Environmental Protection Agency to protect water supplies, a new poll finds that Latinos in four states overwhelmingly want the federal government to keep our water safe…

New EPA Water Intake Rule Too Weak, Fails to Protect Aquatic Life

May 19, 2014 Press Release

WASHINGTON (May 19, 2014) -- The Environmental Protection Agency today, following decades of litigation, issued a final rule that falls far short of what’s needed to protect fish and other aquatic life from being killed by the cooling system water…

Supreme Court Allows Major Southern California Water Quality Victory to Stand

May 5, 2014 Press Release

WASHINGTON (May 5, 2014) – A decision today by the U.S. Supreme Court will protect millions of people living near and visiting Los Angeles rivers and beaches from the harmful effects of water pollution. The Supreme Court declined Los Angeles…

Spring-run Salmon Release Marks Progress in Restoring San Joaquin River

April 17, 2014 Press ReleaseCalifornia

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (April 17, 2014) – Today, for the first time in over 60 years, spring run Chinook salmon returned to the San Joaquin River when the San Joaquin River Restoration Program released 54,000 juvenile into California’s second largest…

Court Unanimously Agrees Feds Unlawfully Renewed Unsustainable Water Supply Contracts in the Bay-Delta

April 16, 2014 Press ReleaseCalifornia

SAN FRANCISCO (April 16, 2014) – A unanimous eleven-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today overturned two earlier court rulings that upheld the federal government’s renewal of several dozen long-term water supply contracts for diversions from…

Water Agencies’ Drought Plan Needs Balance

April 9, 2014 Press ReleaseCalifornia

SACRAMENTO (April 9, 2014) – The California Department of Water Resources and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation today released their proposed 2014 Drought Operations Plan, a proposal that waives key environmental standards to the detriment of the majority of Californians.

Rio Tinto Divests from Pebble Mine

April 7, 2014 Press Release

WASHINGTON (April 7, 2014) -- In the latest departure from the proposed Pebble Mine in southwest Alaska, British mining giant Rio Tinto announced today that it is divesting its interest in the embattled project by donating its shares to two…

Near Record-Low California Snowpack Measurement Warns of Greater Water Supply Challenges Ahead

April 1, 2014 Press ReleaseCalifornia

LOS ANGELES (April 1, 2014) – Critically low California snowpack measurement was reported today by the state’s Department of Water Resources (DWR) in its annual April snow survey, revealing the snowpack measurement is at its lowest since 1988 – the…

EPA Rescues Streams, Wetlands from Clean Water Limbo

March 25, 2014 Press Release

WASHINGTON (March 25, 2014)--The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers today proposed rules to restore Clean Water Act protections to streams and wetlands whose status had been thrown into question by court rulings and Bush administration…