EPA to Water Managers: Support Waters of the US Rule

mountain river

by | Oct 1, 2014

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mountain riverEPA chief Gina McCarthy has asked water and wastewater professionals to support the agency’s Waters of the US rule.

The Times-Picayune reports McCarthy was in New Orleans earlier this week seeking support from some 18,000 water managers and technicians.

The rule, proposed jointly by EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers, would re-extend Clean Water Act protection to more river and stream watersheds. Two earlier US Supreme Court decisions stripped away these protections.

The newspaper says most of Louisiana’s Congressional delegation opposes the rule as an unconstitutional expansion of federal government control over private property that would hurt the state’s economic expansion.

The Waters of the US rule would extend Clean Water Act protection to 60 percent of the nation’s streams and wetlands.

The EPA proposal is pitting brewers against farmers as some small craft beer brewers, including Sierra Nevada and New Belgium, are actively supporting the Waters of the US rule, arguing it will help ensure that they have clean water for their products.

Meanwhile farmers — who supply beer ingredients — say the rule has the potential to massively cut production on their lands.

Photo Credit: mountain river via Shutterstock

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