Safe and Healthy Communities

The Sierra Club wants to foster vibrant, healthy communities with clean water and air, that are free from toxic chemical threats. Our goals include protecting drinking water sources, preventing sewage pollution, protecting communities threatened by mountaintop removal mining, promoting clean water in rural communities, and addressing climate change impacts on water resources. Find out more.

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Tue, Dec 23, 2008

Big Win In 10-Year Fight To Protect Premier Surf Spotby Tom Valtin

Photo by Chay Peterson For more than a decade the Sierra Club has fought a proposed 16-mile toll road through San ...

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Feature: Clean Water Enforcement Falters

Confusing and closely divided Supreme Court decisions followed by vague Bush administration policy is making it more difficult to enforce the nation's premier water pollution control law, according to the EPA's top enforcement officer. In a leaked March 4, 2008 memo, EPA Assistant Administrator of the Office for Enforcement and Compliance Assistance, Granta Y. Nakayama, told Office of Water Assistant Administrator Benjamin Grumbles that "a significant portion of the CWA [Clean Water Act] enforcement docket has been adversely affected" following the Rapanos decision and EPA's policy guidance.

From July 2006 through December 2007, the confusion about which waters fall within the scope of the Clean Water Act "negatively affected approximately 500 enforcement cases," Nakayama wrote. These cases include oil spills, pollution discharges and wetlands destruction. According to the memo, EPA dropped 305 enforcement cases, most of which involved violations of Oil Pollution Act programs, and lowered the enforcement priority of 147 cases.

By comparison, in FY 2007, the EPA resolved approximately 1,000 civil administrative and judicial enforcement cases under the same provisions of the Clean Water Act. The conclusion is clear: the lack of certainty about which waters are protected by the Clean Water Act is causing a major problem in enforcing the law. Many of those who dump waste and spill oil into streams and fill wetlands face no punishment for their violations.

When the EPA is unable to take action against oil spills and pollution of our waters, it's clear that Congressional action to fix this problem is urgently needed. The Clean Water Restoration Act (H.R. 2421) would restore the traditional scope of protection Congress intended in 1972. If we fail to pass this bill, Congress is effectively abandoning the law's visionary goal of restoring and maintaining the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the nation's waters. Ask your member of Congress to support the Clean Water Restoration Act.

Feature: What Does Protecting Streams and Wetlands Have To Do With Global Warming?

How is global warming likely to affect communities? Scientists predict that global warming will intensify droughts and exacerbate the competition for water in the arid West. It probably will cause more intense storms in the East and Midwest, and that will produce more severe flooding. And the runoff of pollutants caused by those storms will pollute our water and drinking water sources. Protecting our natural streams and wetlands can help to buffer our communities from some of the effects of global warming. Find out more (PDF).