When the Trump administration ends — whether that be in 12 months, five years or, god forbid, longer than that somehow — one of its lasting legacies will be the dismantling of environmental protections. The latest part of the country to be opened up to polluters and malicious actors are rivers, streams, and waterways — all of which will be left unprotected thanks to the Trump administration finalizing new water rules that repeal the Obama-era Waters of the United States regulation. Despite the pervasive sense of incompetencesome feel is given off by much of the government’s actions under President Trump, his administration has become particularly proficient at undoing rules meant to protect America’s unique natural fixtures.
The Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, also known as the Clean Water Rule, has been in the crosshairs of Trump and his fossil fuel-adjacent cabinet members basically from the moment he took office. Passed by President Obama in 2015, the ruling set out to make clear what streams, rivers, and wetlands fall under federal jurisdiction and are therefore protected by federal regulations. The rule probably should not have been a controversial one: Politico described it as a “largely technical document” and its primary goal was to clear up much of the vagueness that was present in existing laws that did not explicitly state which waterways have federal protection and just how far upstream those protections go. With the clarity provided by the WOTUS rule, everyone from factory operators to farmers would have a much better idea of what protections are extended to a given waterway and how they would be able to interact with it. Continue reading.