Instead of protecting our environment and public health, the EPA is taking away our right to clean water and making it easier for industry to destroy our public resources.

The EPA plans to remove Clean Water Act protections from more waterways we depend on for clean drinking water. The agency’s new proposal would strip protections from most wetlands and seasonal streams across the country, expanding the already severe losses caused by the Supreme Court’s Sackett v. EPA decision in 2023.

This proposed rule is the greatest threat to our right to clean water we’ve seen in the past 50 years, and is part of a broader effort to weaken clean water protections piece by piece until polluters face virtually no guardrails at all. If enacted, this new rule would accelerate the destruction of wetlands, worsen water quality, and put the health of our communities — and the drinking water they depend on — at risk.

Narrowing the scope of federally protected waters ignores science and common sense. All waterways are connected and do not stop at state lines. Wetlands filter pollution from rivers, lakes, and streams, and many streams are drinking water sources. Excluding these water bodies from protection threatens all connected water bodies with pollution.

These waterways also lose the public’s right to enforce the Clean Water Act. Without oversight, these waters face increased risks from pollution, threatening clean drinking water, recreation, fisheries, and aquatic life.

EPA says they must revise the Clean Water Act’s definition of “waters of the United States” in order to lower the cost of doing business. Yet, the proposed rule causes more uncertainty and confusion and would be a disaster for the economy when factoring in higher water treatment costs and utility bills, exorbitant cleanup costs, flooding disaster damages, healthcare expenses, reduced agricultural production, and lost business opportunities.

The public comment period ends January 5, 2026. Act now. Use our action alert to send an email or submit your own comment here.