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Drain the swamp...into America's streams


LC

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https://www.tu.org/press-releases/epa-final-rule-unravels-clean-water-act-protections/

 

The Environmental Protection Agency announced today it is finalizing a rule that will drop protections for millions of miles of streams and millions of acres of wetlands, putting watersheds at risk for countless Americans.

 

The new rule would eliminate Clean Water Act protections from millions of miles of small headwater streams, and millions of acres of wetlands. This action would curtail common-sense oversight of many currently regulated activities, such as oil and gas development and pipelines.

 

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Guest cherzeca

so you are saying industrial companies are going to truck their pollutants in 4X4s hundreds of miles to small ephemeral (meaning sometimes they exist and sometimes they dont) headwater streams? I wouldn't get too worked up about it

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Anyone with a mine or factory can pick a dry spot (perhaps the one right next to their location) and dump their waste. When the next melt or heavy rain comes and washes that waste into larger bodies of water, they are not responsible.

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so you are saying industrial companies are going to truck their pollutants in 4X4s hundreds of miles to small ephemeral (meaning sometimes they exist and sometimes they dont) headwater streams? I wouldn't get too worked up about it

 

Revisiting this comment because it sounds so gosh darn SILLY, doesn't it?

A company hauling its waste in a bunch of trucks to go dump somewhere? I mean this would never happen, I'm probably just getting worked up over nothing, I guess.

 

Let's start with some context. We're all smart guys and gals here. I don't have to tell you that Nebraska has the largest underground aquifier in the mainland US. But just in case anyone needs a refresher: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer

 

Today about 27% of the irrigated land in the entire United States lies over the aquifer, which yields about 30% of the ground water used for irrigation in the United States

 

And how does this aquifier get its water? Through ephemeral streams and wetlands, of course!

 

More than 80,000 of these shallow depressions fill with water in the spring, creating temporary wetlands responsible for as much as 95 percent of all water that refills the basin

https://www.popsci.com/new-clean-water-act-changes/

 

In Nebraska, 695 total miles of streams provide water for surface water intakes supplying public drinking water systems; of this, 371 miles, or 53%, are intermittent, ephemeral, or headwater streams

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-06/documents/2009_10_15_wetlands_science_surface_drinking_water_surface_drinking_water_ne.pdf

 

So why does that matter? Well would ya take a look at this:

 

(you can head to 2:15 for the real SILLY part)

 

Nebraska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission hearing on an out-of-state company's application to export its toxic fracking wastewater into Nebraska, moving 80 truckloads carrying 10,000 barrels per day of pollution destined to be dumped into a disposal well in Sioux County — transferring all the risk onto Nebraska farmers and ranchers.

 

SILLY!

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Guest cherzeca

the whole point of the Obama regs that are being rolled back is that they interpreted "waters of the US" to include land that is not waters of the US.  so the statute was being extended beyond its reach and when this happens, you have excess cost to accomplish little benefit and usually actual harm

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the whole point of the Obama regs that are being rolled back is that they interpreted "waters of the US" to include land that is not waters of the US.  so the statute was being extended beyond its reach and when this happens, you have excess cost to accomplish little benefit and usually actual harm

 

Another wasteful bureaucratic agency out of control, just like the EPA.

 

Drain the swamp!

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