Repealing and weakening the 2015 Clean Water Rule would put the drinking water for 3.5 million people in our state at risk, harm the environment and increase the chance of flooding and water pollution in Tennessee.
But the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency under Scott Pruitt has plans to do just that.
Tennessee Clean Water Network Water Policy Director Dana Wright says the proposed changes to the Waters of the United States rule would weaken protections for smaller streams and wetlands that provide drinking water and environmental protection for millions of Tennesseans.
This is an Obama-era rule developed with significant public input, prepared with strong scientific and peer-reviewed research, a rule that consistently draws nationwide support. In its first public comment period before passage, more than 80 percent of the comments received were supportive of its implementation.
But it was an Obama administration rule. So the Trump administration wants to erase it.