EPA and Clean Water Act Under Threat

By Holly Heath
Published: July 18, 2025
Last updated: July 15, 2025
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In June 1969, oil slicks on the surface of Ohio’s Cuyahoga River caught fire. This historic event led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and is a cautionary tale highlighting the excesses of unregulated pollution. Three years later, President Nixon signed the Clean Water Act, giving the newly created EPA authority to regulate rivers, wetlands, and more (1). Over 50 years, its scope has been expanded, contracted, and frequently debated; it is now under threat from the Trump Administration and Project 2025 (2).

The Clean Water Act intends to “restore and maintain chemical, physical, and biological integrity of national waters (3). Under its rules, polluters must apply for permits to discharge waste into regulated waterbodies (4). This has improved water quality across the country. The Cuyahoga is now unrecognizable, with kayakers and fishermen enjoying a river that was once so dirty they would have been hospitalized after a quick dip (2).

Project 2025 outlines “reforms” for the EPA, which will impact the interpretation and enforceability of the Clean Water Act. One proposed reform narrowly defines regulated waters to exclude seasonally flowing streams (5). Another tells regulators to  “respect private property rights” despite the risk of pollution on private property spreading (5). It transfers enforcement authority to states and local jurisdictions, while shifting the EPA to a supportive role (5). Currently, this is done only when state laws meet or exceed the EPA’s standards (6).

Existing EPA policy aims to prevent problems before they arise, regulating pollutants based on likely harm. These regulations take into account long-term exposure risks that can lead to cancer, birth defects, and more (7). Project 2025 limits the EPA’s ability to regulate proactively, requiring extensive proof of harm and focusing on immediate health effects from pollutants versus long-term effects such as cancer (5).

Regulated polluters are required to test their discharges regularly and share this information publicly (6). Project 2025 seeks to implement an unclear time limit to this requirement (5). Enforcement would become more difficult as the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assistance would be dissolved and staff reallocated (8).

Steps have already been taken. On March 12, the EPA administrator announced 31 actions to deregulate industry. These include reconsideration of wastewater regulations on oil and gas, as well as risk management and mercury toxin standards (9).

Instead of repealing the Clean Water Act outright, Project 2025 seeks to undermine and redefine its rules, causing chaos by reallocating staff and curtailing the EPA’s Congressionally allocated enforcement authority.

Take Action

Action is needed to protect these laws, and you can help.

  • Call Congressional Representatives and encourage them to stand up to the Administration and its attempts to undermine the EPA. Providing clear public feedback on EPA rules can help inform their actions.
  • Urge state and local officials to implement regulations on water quality as federal laws are stripped.
  • Read the articles in the NOTES from this Engage Tuolumne article.
  • Write a letter to the editor about one thing you learned from reading this material.
  • Attend a Tuolumne Utilities District (TUD) meeting and, at public comment time, express your concerns and ask if the changes in the EPA will change TUD’s protocols.
  • TUD Board meetings are held on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month at 9 am. The next three meetings are July 22, August 12, and August 26. See the calendar for the year.

NOTES

  1. “Definition of ‘Waters of the United States’ under the Clean Water Act,” United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), updated December 2, 2024.
  2. Lorraine Boissoneault, “The Cuyahoga River Caught Fire at Least a Dozen Times, but No One Cared Until 1969,” Smithsonian Magazine, June 19, 2019.
  3. “The Clean Water Act,” Water: Environmental and Natural Resources Division, U.S. Department of Justice. Update May 29, 2025.
  4. “Section 401 of the Clean Water Act,” United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), updated 2025.
  5. “Office of Water,” Mandate of Leadership, A Conservative Promise, Project 2025, The Heritage Foundation, April 21, 2023, pp. 428-430.
  6. “Clean Water Act Section 308: Inspections, Monitoring, Entry,” United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), updated March 5, 2025.
  7. “Earthjustice Project 2025 Analysis,” Earthjustice, November 2024.
  8. “Administrator’s Office and Reorganization Responsibility,” Mandate of Leadership, A Conservative Promise, Project 2025, The Heritage Foundation, April 21, 2023, p. 421.
  9. “EPA Launches Biggest Deregulatory Action in U.S. History,” United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), updated March 14, 2025.