New York Times covers Clean Water Act jursidiction issue

The New York Times' Toxic Water Series has tackled another important -- maybe the most important -- Clean Water Act issue of the day: jurisdiction. The question of which waters are protected under the Clean Water Act is critical, particularly in the semi-arid and arid regions of the Intermountain West.

In the article Rulings Restrict Clean Water Act, Foiling EPA, the Times lays out the problems with enforcement, permit coverage, and general protection since Supreme Court rulings in 2001 and 2006 threw the well-accepted thinking on what waters were protected under the Act into disarray. For more background on the issue, please see our post from back in February.

The article points out how this issue ties in with so much of the work to protect and restore rivers in our region:

The consequences of the Supreme Court decisions are stark. In drier states, some polluters say the act no longer applies to them and are therefore refusing to renew or apply for permits, making it impossible to monitor what they are dumping, say officials.

Cannon Air Force Base near Clovis, N.M., for instance, recently informed E.P.A. officials that it no longer considered itself subject to the act. It dumps wastewater — containing bacteria and human sewage — into a lake on the base.