EPA’s “Dirty Water Rule” will threaten Texans’ drinking water

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Brian Zabcik

Proposal would drastically roll back clean water protections in Texas

Environment Texas

 AUSTIN — Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveils its plan to drastically roll back Clean Water Act protections from vast networks of streams and wetlands in Texas and across the country. Brian Zabcik, Clean Water Advocate at Environment Texas, issued the following statement:
“The ‘Dirty Water Rule’ is the most extreme attack on clean water in recent memory. This outrageous proposal upends the core mission of the EPA: protecting human health and the environment.
 
“The health of Texas waterways from Rio Grande to the Red River depend on the smaller streams that feed  them, and the wetlands that filter out pollution. By stripping federal protections from smaller streams and wetlands, the Dirty Water Rule would put Texas’s rivers, lakes, and bays — and our drinking water — at risk of pollution. It defies common sense and sound science, and isn’t what Texans want.
 
“The Dirty Water Rule being proposed today would replace the 2015 Clean Water Rule, which restored federal protections to more than 143,000 miles of Texas streams (see attached map), which help provide drinking water to over 11.5 million Texans. More than a thousand scientific studies and a million Americans — including 34,000 Texans — have backed protections for these waterways.
 
“As stewards of our environment, it is our moral obligation to protect Texas’s waters. For the sake of our ecosystem, our way of life, and even our own drinking water, we must stop EPA from opening our waterways to polluters.”
 
Environment Texas advocates for clean air, clean water, and preservation of Texas’ natural areas on behalf of 35,000 members and online activists statewide.