Imperiled Treasures: How Recent Supreme Court Decisions and Agency Actions Have Endangered Southwest Waters and Wildlife

New report from the National Wildlife Federation:

"For thirty years the federal Clean Water Act broadly protected waters in the nation and across the Southwest. It sought, with a great deal of success, to safeguard important waters from pollution and destruction. Historically, it applied to waters from the Rio Grande to playa lakes. However, now the protections of the Act are being whittled away. Two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (2001) and Rapanos v. United States (2006), have placed protections of many of the nation’s waters, such as intermittent and ephemeral streams and so-called “isolated” wetlands, in doubt. While these Supreme Court decisions have not overturned any of the current regulations that broadly protect waters, they have created significant legal confusion over the scope of the Act’s protections."  [RJ]