Washington, DC - Today, Chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Chair of the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment Grace F. Napolitano (D-CA) released the following statements after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it was withdrawing the Trump Dirty Water rule, the largest rollback of clean water protections in U.S. history, and getting to work on a replacement. In February, the Chairs sent a letter to President Biden calling on his administration to immediately repeal the Trump rule and embark on a new, consensus-driven rulemaking.
“Today, the Biden administration didn’t just talk the talk on ensuring clean water for all—it walked the walk,” Chair DeFazio said. “By proposing to withdraw the Trump Dirty Water rule—a devastating attack on protections for our rivers, streams, and wetlands—President Biden and EPA Administrator Michael Regan are taking the right steps to ensure that the clean water that American communities depend on isn’t sold out to corporate polluters. However, EPA’s announcement confirmed what I’ve been saying all along – that every day the Dirty Water Rule remains in effect, it causes irreparable harm to our health, to our environment, and to our economies. As the Biden administration starts to engage with the public on a new rulemaking, I’ll be watching to make sure that any new rule is based on law, science, and is consistent with the goals of the Clean Water Act, which is to protect the nation’s waters.”
“Rooted in corporate profits, not science, the Trump Dirty Water rule threatened the health of our nation’s waters and American families, even during a global pandemic,” Chair Napolitano said. “It gave polluters license to dump into our streams, placing the burden of cleaning up that water before it got to the tap on our water agencies and passing the bill on to local taxpayers. I commend President Biden and Administrator Regan for withdrawing this costly, stupid rule and affirming that clean and safe water is a right that should be afforded to every individual in the United States.”
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