The Trump administration is struggling to head off a crisis along the West’s most critical river, but the pollution regulation it proposed last week could make the problems worse, according to water experts.
The EPA proposal would dramatically restrict the number of streams and wetlands that receive protection under the federal Clean Water Act even though the agency itself acknowledges it would exclude many of the mountain streams and wetlands that are the source of more than 70 percent of the flow of the Colorado River.
That river has already seen its flows shrivel by 20 percent after a quarter-century of drought, and states from Wyoming to Mexico are now haggling over whose cities, farms, tribes and industries will bear the brunt of cuts in access to the remaining water.
If the EPA proposal moves forward, those diminishing supplies could face increased pollution, since oil and gas companies, miners, homebuilders and other industries would no longer be required to seek federal permits to discharge pollution into tributaries or fill in wetlands that fall outside of the water law’s scope.
