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Clean Water Act Changes Could Impact Chesapeake Bay, VA Economy

RICHMOND, Va. – The Trump Administration is trying to narrow the scope of the Clean Water Act, a change that would exclude about half the nation’s wetlands and many streams. It would also impact Virginia’s economy and drinking water.
The Environmental Protection Agency says changing the “Waters of the United States” rule would enable more state and tribal authority over these resources. But Kyle Hart, wildlife and sportsmen organizer with the Virginia Conservation Network, says ending protections for smaller streams and wetlands would heavily affect the tourism economy in Virginia.
“While Virginia might still be doing our part to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay, if other states in the watershed – such as West Virginia or Delaware, or Pennsylvania – are no longer regulating certain pollution discharges, it makes it a lot harder to restore the Chesapeake Bay,” says Hart.
Hart says before the Clean Water Act existed, watershed protections were left up to the states and didn’t work as well. He sees weakening the rules as a “race to the bottom” that would make it harder to manage multi-state watersheds.
The public can comment on the proposed changes until Monday, April 15th, online at ‘regulations.gov.’
The proposal would exclude streams or wetlands that are not “meaningfully connected” to larger water sources, like rivers and lakes. It would also strip protections from “ephemeral streams,” or those that only flow after a rainfall.
Jan Goldman-Carter, senior director for Wetlands and Water Resources with the National Wildlife Federation, says the consequences are major.
“If they were able to shrink the Clean Water Act protections as drastically as they’re proposing to do it, it really would not be possible to meet the objectives of the Clean Water Act,” says Goldman-Carter.
The EPA has argued that lifting some of the Clean Water Act regulations would provide more certainty for farmers, ranchers and land developers.