September 18, 2026

The Biggest Clean Water Rollback Yet

The Trump Administration keeps removing Clean Water Act protections from the rivers, lakes, and wetlands that you rely on for clean, safe water.

By Nancy Stoner, Senior Attorney

Americans across the political spectrum value clean, safe water. Congress passed the Clean Water Act, by a huge bipartisan majority in 1972, to protect waterways across the U.S. from pollution or destruction.

Unfortunately, the Trump administration’s EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are doing the work of the polluters instead of protecting the streams and wetlands you and your family depend on.

Their latest proposed rule, known as the “Updated Definition of the Waters of the U.S.”, will restrict even further Clean Water Act protections for most streams and wetlands that are essential to keeping waterways in the Midwest clean and prevent flooding. This re-proposal (they already proposed a change last fall that we opposed, now they are updating it to be even more restrictive), would exclude all non-perennial streams from protection and all wetlands that don’t have surface water all of the time and are directly connected to flowing waters that have surface water all year round.

Essentially what they are saying is if a waterway doesn’t have running water 365 days a year, it doesn’t matter and doesn’t need to be protected. Clearly someone didn’t pay attention in biology class.

EPA and the Corps don’t even pretend that their re-proposal will provide better protection for waterways that Americans recognize are critical to ensuring safe drinking water and a healthy U.S. economy. If finalized, it will protect the fewest waterways ever since the Clean Water Act was passed.

Let’s look at the #s: How few waters will be protected?

Anticipating this move by EPA and the Army Corps, ELPC mapped all the non-perennial streams in the states whose waterways we work to protect. Here’s a map of all the waterways that we expect to lose protection if this re-proposed rule is finalized.

Every piece of blue is a non-perennial stream.

According to that same dataset, at least 77% of stream miles nationwide are non-perennial. While the impacts are even greater in the arid west where water supplies are already dangerously low, even in a Midwest state like Ohio where our colleagues at NRDC estimate 69% of stream miles are non-perennial. And in Iowa, they estimate 75% of stream miles would be unprotected. This re-proposal is not just an affront to the arid west. EPA’s re-proposed Polluted Waters Rule threatens the safety of every American’s drinking water supply and the availability of water for manufacturing, farming, recreation, and for every plant and animal in the U.S., since they all need water to live.

The impact on this proposed rule on the rivers, lakes, and wetlands of the Midwest cannot be overstated.

The Great Lakes sustain a $6 trillion economy, contain more than 90% of North America’s supply of surface freshwater, and provide drinking water for more than 40 million people in the U.S. and Canada.

All of North America’s waterfowl depend on wetlands, while half of the continent’s other migratory birds use them at some point during their annual life cycles. Ninety percent of fish caught by American recreational anglers need wetlands for shelter, food supply, spawning, and nursery areas. According to the National Park Service, between 60% and 90% of U.S. commercial fisheries depend on wetlands.

The Clean Water Act is a success & it’s time to act.

The purpose of the Clean Water Act is to protect waterways for swimming, fishing, drinking, irrigation, livestock watering, manufacturing, and a host of other essential uses. While there is some room go to, the Clean Water Act is one of the nation’s most effective statutes for ensuring that Americans have safe, clean water. Waterways are cleaner thanks to the Clean Water Act establishing a system of protection that stopped pollution at its source before it reached the Mississippi or the Great Lakes.

The result of such a sweeping clean water rollback will be more pollution, more flooding, more costly and contaminated tap water, diminished wildlife and habitat, fewer fish, and the loss of the beauty of America’s wonderful water resources.