Clean Water Act: What Do the Proposed Changes Mean for Conservation?

Less than 1 percent of the world’s water is fresh and accessible. Of that 1 percent, one-fifth sits in our Great Lakes. Freshwater habitats also house an incredible proportion of the world’s biodiversity: more than 10 percent of all known animals and about 50 percent of all known fish species.

Today, freshwater habitats—and the biodiversity that depends on them—are at risk of pollution exposure due to proposed changes to the Clean Water Act.

Shedd Aquarium stands with numerous clean water advocates—including the Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation, fellow aquariums and even beer brewers—all asking the Environmental Protection Agency’s appointed leadership to uphold the existing rules within the Clean Water Act and demonstrate a commitment to science-based conservation.

A new definition for protections

In 2017, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was issued a presidential executive order to review the Clean Water Act. Two years later, on Valentine’s Day 2019, the EPA published its proposed changes, removing protections for many wetlands and streams that were formerly safeguarded as “Waters of the United States.”

What is most notable about the proposed definition is not what it protects but rather what it excludes.

It would remove Clean Water Act protections for all ephemeral tributaries—those that flow in direct response to rain events. It would also drop protections for intermittent waterbodies—those that are wet part of the year rather than every day, like vernal ponds—and even small perennial streams that have year-round flow.

What would changes do to conservation efforts?

An estimated 18 percent of streams and 51 percent of wetlands would lose their protections, reversing decades of progress made in restoring and safeguarding them. Think of intermittent and ephemeral streams like the capillaries in your body. Although they are small, they play a vital role in our overall health. The same applies to small headwater streams, which feed the larger creeks and rivers we more commonly recognize.

By removing protections for small waters where runoff enters, the health of all fresh water is effectively put at risk. These habitats are vitally important to the wild counterparts of animals that call Shedd home:

• American alligators, which were saved from extinction by the Endangered Species Act, use wetlands as nursery sites for hatchlings and juveniles.
• Spotted salamanders spend most of their lives on land but depend on vernal pools (temporary spring wetlands) for breeding.
• Amphibians like the American bullfrog breathe through their porous skin, which makes them extremely vulnerable to soil, air and water pollution.
• Yellow perch live in large schools in the shallow waters of the Great Lakes as well as in ponds, creeks and slow-flowing rivers throughout the northern United States and Canada.
  

For nearly 50 years, the Clean Water Act has protected waterways, big and small, across the United States, helping support important freshwater ecosystems and the wildlife within them. In that time, the number of clean waterways has doubled, and the annual rate of wetland loss has dropped 80 percent. The Clean Water Act has been so successful that younger Americans might not remember polluted rivers and streams devoid of wildlife. Conservation efforts, including success stories like the once-near-extinction of the wood duck, have prioritized protecting aquatic ecosystems to ensure wildlife have safe havens within their habitat range.