Washington State AG Ferguson to EPA: Don't degrade water quality, deny states rights
The Trump Administration, quietly proposing a bureaucratic rule change, wants to take away states rights, degrade water quality, and brazenly violate the federal Clean Water Act, in words of a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency from Washington and 21 other states.
Washington, New York, California and Pennsylvania are ringleaders in protesting the latest proposed rollback in environmental protection coming out of Washington, D.C.
"The Trump administration's proposed rule would usurp state and tribal authority to regulate our waters, in violation of the law," Attorney General Bob Ferguson said Tuesday in a statement.
"This stunning federal power grab ignores binding Supreme Court precedent, the plain language of the Clean Water Act, and the fact that Washington and other states have successfully implemented clean water programs for half-a-century."
The Trump administration says it is "promoting energy infrastructure" with its proposed modification to Section 401 of the Clean Water Act, and sweeping the slate clean of "outdated federal guidance and regulations." The change has been supported by major agribusiness interests and such groups as the American Farm Bureau Federation.
It would, for instance, require states to consider only EPA-approved water quality standards in imposing limits on proposed water projects. The EPA under Trump has weakened standards, notably moving to remove millions of acres of wetlands from protection of the Clean Water Act.
https://www.seattlepi.com/local/politics/article/AG-Ferguson-to-EPA-Don-t-degrade-water-quality-14554621.php?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailynewsletterspi&utm_term=spi
Unfortunately Trump feels EPA stands for Environmental Pollution Administration.