APRIL 11, 2019
Seattle, WA —
A coalition of environmental and fishing organizations denounce the Trump administration’s latest effort to dismantle laws that protect clean water and public health. Without giving notice to Tribes, water quality advocates, citizens, or fishing families, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced plans to revoke its own 2016 rule that ensures protective standards for Washington’s citizens. If finalized, the proposed rule would pave the way for polluters to dump greatly increased amounts of toxic pollution into state waters, threatening communities, salmon, and orca whales that rely on clean water to thrive.
The EPA memo, dated March 20, 2019, comes without formal announcement and was only discovered on April 9, 2019, when a Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission staff member unexpectedly discovered it. The memo indicates a return to much weaker, unprotective standards that will not protect tribes and other consumers of fish caught in Washington’s waters. EPA now contends that the memo and request for comments on the proposed reversal were released in error, and that no decisions have been made. But EPA’s intentions are clear — it is again putting polluting industries above human health.
“A major purpose of the Clean Water Act is to protect our communities from toxic pollution,” said Puget Soundkeeper Chris Wilke. “This shameful and reckless proposal puts us all at risk, and is a betrayal of the public trust and responsibility that the EPA has to protect clean water and public health.”
“People rely on clean water and otherwise healthy, locally-caught fish on the Columbia River and other rivers throughout Washington state,” stated Lauren Goldberg, legal and program director for Columbia Riverkeeper. “We’re calling on Governor Inslee to stand up to the Trump administration’s blatant disregard of sound science and protect people from serious threats from toxic pollution.”
“The Clean Water Act requires states and the EPA to protect water quality so that people are not exposed to toxics when drinking water, eating fish, or recreating in and around our water resources,” noted Janette Brimmer of Earthjustice. “Today’s proposal by the Trump administration puts the health of the people of this state at risk by ignoring all of the important scientific work done by the EPA in developing these standards.”
“Allowing polluters to put more poisons in our rivers and expose more people to toxic health hazards is a terrible idea all around,” commented Glen Spain, Northwest Regional Director with the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA). “No one, and no corporation, should be given free rein to pollute the nation’s food supply, as these proposed rollback rules would in effect allow. The Trump administration’s economic argument is bunk — the State of Oregon also uses the 175 grams per day fish consumption standard, and Oregon’s economy is doing just fine.”
“The Spokane River is one of the most polluted rivers in Washington State for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs),” said Jerry White, Jr., Spokane Riverkeeper .“For us, this rescission effort represents a profound policy failure on the part of the EPA. Rescinding the water quality standards under industry pressure not only destroys the intent of the Clean Water Act, but it damages a process intended to clean up the Spokane River and all of Washington State’s waterways.”
The EPA’s current back-sliding on water quality standards is the Trump administration’s latest in a long string of attacks on the Clean Water Act and other environmental protections. With this move, the administration is openly siding with industrial polluters who have fought against scientifically-supported needs for stronger anti-pollution standards in Washington. The EPA’s proposed new rule would gut Washington State’s water quality standards, dangerously increasing the already high amounts of carcinogenic PCBs and other toxic chemicals discharged into our waters.