Do you have two minutes today to protect clean water? We need your help, our waters need you to speak up, and the Great Lakes need you to act – NOW. The Clean Water Act is under attack AGAIN, with attempts to dramatically weaken the Act’s Section 401 water quality certification provision. In short and plain language, EPA wants to limit state and tribal authority to review, place conditions on, or deny federal energy or infrastructure projects that may be harmful to our waters. Meaning that state’s rights and the power to protect their communities from pollution are being intentionally undermined. Paired with the recent rewriting of the “Waters of the US” rule, this one-two punch will have staggering negative impacts to our waters if left unchallenged.
Last year, we committed to keeping you informed about consequential federal actions impacting our waters. We promised to be selective and strategic when raising the alarm needed to mobilize our voices. Last fall we alerted the community to the insidiously written PERMIT Act (HR 3898), and last month we alerted our community to the dangerous efforts to rewrite the Waters of the US rule (WOTUS). Many of you responded with individual action and public comment to oppose efforts to undermine the core tenets of the Clean Water Act.
We are sounding the alarm and need you to act again. Join the millions of people who are already opposing this Section 401 rule change: members of fishing and hunting groups, recreational boaters, conservationists, hikers, birders, private landowners, and everyone who enjoys clean water. Leave a public comment of your own expressing your opposition at the link below. Now is the moment when your two minutes of clean water advocacy can have the greatest impact.
Some examples of comments in opposition to this proposed rule change could be “I oppose the proposed rule change to section 401 of the Clean Water Act because I support state’s rights to protect their water and land for their citizens.” Or “I am writing to oppose the rule change for Section 401 of the Clean Water Act because clean water is important to the health of my family, and I don’t want these new rules to strip those protections away.” It is crucial that you paraphrase or write your own, brief, unique comment, to ensure the EPA does not dilute or misrepresent the volume of similarly-worded complaints and that your individual voice is heard.
Comments can be left at this link: https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/EPA-HQ-OW-2025-2929-0001.
When you’re done, for even greater impact, take an additional two minutes to call your US congressional representative and senator and let them know you submitted a comment in opposition to this proposed Section 401 rule change.
