E&E News: Democrats voice ‘strong objection’ to EPA water permitting rule
By Miranda Willson
Democrats are objecting to a Trump administration plan to limit what states can do to protect water quality, describing the proposal as an affront to states’ rights that could create new permitting problems.
In a letter Wednesday to EPA officials, 11 Senate Democrats expressed “strong objection” to the agency’s draft rule restricting water quality reviews conducted by states and tribes.
Those reviews are required under the Clean Water Act for permitting of hydropower dams, pipelines and other energy projects. EPA’s proposal would make it harder for states to block projects or impose environmental conditions on them.
“By denying states’ and Tribes’ right to protect their waters and water quality, the proposed rule would eviscerate the Clean Water Act’s core principle of cooperative federalism,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and Jess Kramer, the assistant administrator for water.
Led by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), the letter was signed by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and others. Many of those lawmakers represent states with large hydropower dams.
An EPA spokesperson said the agency was reviewing the letter and would respond through appropriate channels.
Unveiled in January, the draft rule aims to reduce permitting delays and prevent states from “weaponizing” the Clean Water Act to block fossil fuel projects, administration officials have said. Agency officials are currently reviewing public comments on the plan.
The rule would require states to issue, waive or deny a water quality certification for projects within one year.
“When finalized, this proposed rule will increase transparency, efficiency and predictability for certifying authorities and the regulated community, better aligning the regulations with the Clean Water Act,” Kramer told reporters at a press conference in January.
The rule would bar state regulators from considering a suite of potential environmental impacts, asserting that they may only evaluate projects’ potential “discharges” into federally regulated waters. That could limit state authority over dams in particular, the lawmakers said, since those projects can have broad impacts on things like fish species, erosion and water temperature.
In addition, the proposal would limit the scope of state water quality certifications, so that only wetlands and waters covered by the Clean Water Act could be evaluated. That shift would add a new layer of bureaucracy in some states that have their own water protection requirements, the lawmakers said.
In California, for example, project developers would be forced to file for both a federal water quality certification and a permit under state law if the rule is finalized, according to the letter. That would add “unnecessary delay and expense for both the state and the applicant,” the lawmakers continued.
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