Waters Advocacy Coalition

Welcome to the Water Advocacy Coalition’s New Website

As you may know, the Clean Water Act has helped protect America’s waters and our environment for nearly 40 years. This commonsense legislation struck an appropriate balance between federal and state regulations. The Clean Water Act has helped foster strong partnerships between Washington, D.C. and state governments, helping to ensure America’s water is clean, responsibly managed, and safe for interstate commerce – a main pillar of the bill’s original intent.

Unfortunately, this 37 year-old partnership – which has given states and localities the flexibility to effectively manage their water resources – could be undermined.

Some in Congress are working to pass the Clean Water Restoration Act (CWRA). The CWRA – which its supporters say aims to “restore” and to “clarify” Congress’ original intent of the Clean Water Act – has already cleared a major legislative hurdle, gaining approval from the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in June.

By adding the word “all” to the federal law – which currently regulates “navigable waters” – the strong federal-state partnership could be jeopardized. In fact, some legal experts believe that the CWRA could ultimately give the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authority to regulate virtually all waters of the United States, regardless of whether or not it is on public or private land.

Major news outlets are taking notice of the threats the CWRA poses, too. Recently, the Grand Junction (CO) Sentinel wrote this about the CWRA in an editorial entitled “Navigate carefully in clean-water reform”, and even highlighted a quote from Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas), who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, on the issue:

Unfortunately, a bill passed by a Senate Committee in June contains such problematic language that groups like the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Association of Counties have good reason to fear that it would give federal agencies broad authority over not only lakes and rivers, but ponds and drainage ditches. There is also concern that it would allow agencies such as the Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA to control activities that might pollute these waters — everything from farming to land development.

“We certainly don’t want to give the EPA the broad authority that would allow them onto your farms to regulate ponds, ditches and gutters,” Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., recently told a farm group.

Congress can avoid that by clearly defining the language of the Clean Water Act, not simply eliminating troublesome words and thereby opening up the possibility of even more confusion and more legal challenges.

Despite its good intentions, it’s clear that the one-size-fits-all federal regulatory approach called for by the CWRA is not the best solution to keeping our waters clean and safe. Our site, we hope, will provide you with the fact-based research and expert analysis needed to understand these complex issues.

Thanks for visiting. We hope you find our site and our educational materials helpful and informative.