July 01, 2026
Today, 58 groups sent a letter to Chair Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, Ranking Member Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, and members of the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, calling on them to uphold state and Tribal authority under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act (CWA) as they consider permit reform legislation. Signers to the letter include the Environmental Law & Policy Center, Southern Environmental Law Center, Conservation Law Foundation, Earthjustice, Natural Resources Defense Council and League of Conservation Voters.
Section 401 is a critical tool for supporting clean water across America – a goal which is overwhelmingly supported by the public. A recent national survey conducted for the Walton Family Foundation showed 96% of voters say protecting the safety of drinking water is important. Americans across the political spectrum value clean water for drinking, recreating, fishing, irrigating crop land, industrial operations, and many other uses, and understand that protecting clean water makes economic sense, the survey found.
Section 401 is a critical component of the Clean Water Act’s cooperative federalism approach, under which the federal and state governments share responsibility for protecting the nation’s waterways from pollution. It preserves the authority of states and Tribes to ensure their own water quality protections are met. Section 401 operates by empowering states and Tribes to review and add conditions to protect water quality when federally permitted or licensed projects involve a discharge into waters of the United States. They also have the authority to block projects under Section 401 that pose unacceptable risks to water quality that cannot be prevented.
Despite that power, states and Tribes historically exercised their authority under Section 401 in a timely manner and have used their authority to block projects very infrequently. The letter includes new data from states reinforcing existing EPA data showing that permitted projects are rarely delayed or blocked due to denials under Section 401.
The administration is also proposing a variety of regulatory changes through rulemaking that would weaken Clean Water Act protections, including drastically narrowing the wetlands and other waters which the CWA would protect and reducing state and Tribal Section 401 authority to protect waters within their boundaries. At a time when the administration and some members of Congress expressed interest in transferring more responsibility to the states from the federal government for maintaining a healthy environment, weakening a key tool that states and Tribes have to protect water bodies would be counterproductive.
The letter’s signatories offer to demonstrate to members of Congress how states and Tribes have efficiently and effectively applied Section 401 to protect waterways.