Trump Administration Unveils Major Clean Water Act Rollback
The Trump administration unveiled its plan Tuesday for a major rollback of the Clean Water Act, a blueprint drawn up at the behest of farm groups, real estate developers and other business interests that would end federal protections on thousands of miles of streams and wetlands. The proposal has big implications for California and other arid Western states, where many of the seasonal streams and wetlands that are a foundation of drinking-water supplies and sensitive ecosystems would lose federal protection. Acting Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler said the Obama-era rule that put those waters under the protection of the Clean Water Act “further expanded Washington’s reach into privately owned lands.”