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Clean Water Act Section 401 Water Quality Certification Improvement Rule

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Last modified
Dec 19, 2023
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closed 1450d ago
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filings
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Activity

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed 1 comment on this docket between Aug 11, 2022 and Aug 11, 2022. 50 other organizations filed here. The comment window closed 1450d ago.

What Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed (1)

Aug 11, 2022· Mass Comment Campaign sponsored by Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). (web)· EPA-HQ-OW-2022-0128-0373

Dear EPA Administrator Regan, Please accept these 2,348 public comments from members and online activists of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) urging you to ensure that states and tribes are properly given the primary role in the section 401 review process. In general, we are encouraged by the EPA's proposal to reverse a Trump-era regulation that limited state and tribal authority to protect lakes, rivers, and streams within their borders. The Clean Water Act is the nation's most effective tool to protect clean water for all Americans. Section 401 authorizes states and tribes to review the impacts of many different types of federally licensed projects on waterways within their borders and to stop or put limits on unacceptable projects. As these comments stress, States and tribes should have the final say in determining how long it will take for them to fulfill their obligations and act on a request for certification. The proposal's default time period of 60 days is far too short for many projects. And EPA's final rule should ensure that states and tribes can review all federally-authorized activities – including ones that only involve non-point-source pollution. Your proposal allowing states and tribes to consider the full range of potential harms to water quality when considering federally permitted projects is a major step forward. And the proposal's restoration of states' and tribes' primary role in the process, without allowing federal agencies to second-guess their determinations, is the right way to go. Please go even further to strengthen state and tribal ability to protect local waterways. Your agency can not only reverse the previous administration's shameful and unlawful sabotage of the Clean Water Act, but to also empower states and tribes with the tools they need to protect the health and safety of their waters. Please implement the strongest clean water rule that will achieve this.

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Abstract

EPA’s current water quality certification regulations were promulgated in 1971, prior to the 1972 amendments that enacted Clean Water Act section 401. With this action, the Agency is proposing to update the existing regulations to be more consistent with the statutory text of the CWA; to clarify, reinforce, and provide a measure of consistency with respect to elements of section 401 certification practice that have evolved over the fifty years since the 1971 Rule was promulgated; and to support an efficient and predictable certification process that is consistent with the water quality protection and cooperative federalism principles central to CWA section 401.

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Co-filers (50)

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