Duckworth Joins Schiff, Colleagues in Raising Alarm on EPA’s New Rule Abandoning Federal Water Pollution Protections

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) joined U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) and 14 of her colleagues in opposing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)’s new Waters of the United States (WOTUS) proposed rule which threatens to undo significant progress made to restore the quality of our nation’s waters. The new rule limits the definition of waters, including removing coverage for waters that are not wet for the duration of an undefined “wet season” and excluding all waters but those with continuous surface connections. This leaves water bodies vulnerable to pollution, flood and damage and leaves communities without clean drinking water.

“The proposed rule is legally unnecessary, scientifically unsound and will harm public and environmental health by allowing more harmful chemicals into our waterways. We urge you to abandon this rulemaking and refocus your efforts on making Americans healthier,” the Senators wrote.

In a letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) Adam Telle, the Senators express deep concern over the significant harm of stripping federal protections for the nation’s wetlands that don’t fall under the new WOTUS rule. Over 50 years ago, Congress set the precedent by passing the Clean Water Act (CWA)—with strong bipartisan votes—to protect America’s water resources and safeguard our nation’s public health. EPA’s new proposal would further rollback these safeguards that were already weakened in the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Sackett v. EPA.

“We all drink and use water. Municipal water utilities and their ratepayers—the American people—will disproportionately bear the economic burden of remediating the poorer quality water this rule will cause. Moreover, flood risk management and disaster response services will become increasingly overburdened from the compounding impacts of cumulative upstream watershed degradation,” the Senators continued.

“As proposed, the 2025 draft WOTUS rule ignores science, removes vast swaths of aquatic areas from federal jurisdiction, fails to protect water quality and passes the costs on to the American taxpayer. It does not simplify the ability of the agency to identify jurisdictional waters. There are reasonable policies we could pursue to simplify permitting and create union jobs in this country, but this proposed rule does not represent a viable path forward,” the Senators concluded.

In addition to Duckworth and Schiff, the letter was signed by U.S Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Edward Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

The full text of the letter is available on Senator Duckworth’s website.

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