WASHINGTON, D.C. — The House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee approved a sweeping bill that would dismantle core protections under the Clean Water Act. The legislation strips federal safeguards from critical water bodies, weakens pollution limits, sidelines science, and blocks state and Tribal leaders from effectively protecting their own waters.
The following is a reaction from Jon Devine, director of freshwater ecosystems at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):
“This bill is an all-out assault on Americans’ water and a free pass to the polluting industries to contaminate and bulldoze the water bodies we fish and swim in, depend on for drinking water, and that protect our communities from drought and floods. It should be dead on arrival in the full House of Representatives and the Senate shouldn’t touch this reckless pile of rollbacks with a 1,000-foot pole.”
NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).