Too Clean? A new Bush administration policy removes Clean Water Act protection from many of the country's waters. According to an EPA estimate, 20 percent of the nation's remaining wetlands, plus many small streams and ponds, may now be subjected to pollution discharges, dredging, filling, and other assaults.

Every spring the Devil's Punchbowl fills with water and then blossoms into a learning site for children in the nature classes at the Cora Hartshorn Arboretum in New Jersey. As the kids learn, the Devil's Punchbowl is a vernal pool that is home to many different organisms, including endangered fairy shrimp.

When I taught classes at the Arboretum, I was amazed that organisms could survive in a pool that was only wet for a few months of the year. If I was surprised, imagine how fascinated the children were.

The creatures that flourish in this vernal pool are lucky; the Devil's Punchbowl is on private property owned by people concerned with conservation. Other vernal pools and water bodies across the country are not so fortunate. In January 2003, the Bush administration announced that it will no longer use the Clean Water Act to protect many of America's waters from pollution discharges, dredging, filling, and other assaults.

The administration's new policy removes Clean Water Act protections from many of the nation's so-called "isolated" waters-small streams, ponds, and wetlands. The administration considers the waters "isolated" because they do not have any visible connection to other waters. However, many scientists doubt that any waters can be considered truly isolated. Harm done to a body of water can damage the larger waters that it is connected to, even if those connections are intermittent or underground.

According to the EPA, 20 percent of the United States' remaining wetlands, some 20 million acres, plus many small streams and ponds, may now be excluded from the Clean Water Act. Developers will now be able to fill many wetlands and small streams without a permit, and mining companies, industrial waste dischargers, and municipal sewage treatment plants will no longer need permits to dump wastes into many waters.

For 30 years, the Clean Water Act has provided a safeguard against the dumping of waste into our waters and the dredging and filling of wetlands. Today slightly more than half of our waters meet clean water standards. "The Clean Water Act is one of our most successful environmental laws," says Robin Mann, chair of the Sierra Club's Wetlands Taskforce. "The Bush administration should focus on enforcing that law, not weakening it."

The risks associated with removing Clean Water Act protection from so-called isolated streams, wetlands, and ponds include:

"The Bush administration's actions are the biggest threat to the Clean Water Act in many years," says Mann. "Sierra Club members, many of whom are actively engaged in efforts to protect and restore streams, wetlands, and other waters, will need to play a crucial role in opposing this assault on clean water. The Clean Water Act should continue to protect all the nation's waters."

Take Action: Contact your senators and representative. Urge them to protect the waters in your region. To contact them via e-mail, visit our Take Action system.

Send a comment to the EPA before April 16. For more information and a sample letter, visit www.sierraclub.org/cleanwater/get_involved.asp.

Send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. For a sample letter, visit www.sierraclub.org/cleanwater/get_involved.asp.

Join with members of your community in a local water monitoring program to measure the health of a local stream or wetland. To learn more, visit www.epa.gov/owow/monitoring/vol.html.

Join our e-mail list and keep up to date on campaign developments by sending an e-mail to clean.water@sierraclub.org.

For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org/cleanwater or contact Ananda Hirsch at ananda.hirsch@sierraclub.org.