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05.19.15

House Votes to Block EPA's Clean Water Rule

On May 12, 2015, the U. S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1732, The Regulatory Integrity Protection Act of 2015.  This bill requires the EPA to withdraw their proposed clean water rule and go back to the drawing board.  Ironically enough, this legislation directs the EPA to begin again the same public process that they just completed, further wasting everyone's time, including all of the private citizens, government agencies, and environmental and business interests that have already submitted comments - over 1 million of them!

And the majority of the comments the EPA received are already in favor of the Clean Water Rule!

You can read the text here of the Regulatory Integrity Protection Act of 2015 or view Associated Press coverage of the recent vote held in the House of Representatives.

Fortunately, H.R. 1732 did not receive enough votes to overturn a Presidential veto if it comes to that, but you can help the Surfrider Foundation counter this attack on clean water by emailing your Congressional leaders in DC and asking them to protect your right to clean water.

The Clean Water Rule the EPA is proposing is not a land grab or anti-farm as its detractors erroneously suggest.   It simply restores protections to streams and wetlands that have traditionally been afforded under the Clean Water Act before recent Supreme Court decisions left protections ambiguous and the permitting process expensive for everyone.  Read more background here.

Clean water should not be a partisan issue.  Support the EPA in their efforts to restore CWA protections for nearly 20 million acres of wetlands, two million miles of streams, and the drinking water for 117 million Americans