The EPA is dismantling community power over water

Clean water is a foundation of democracy. Communities depend on it to live, work, and participate fully in civic life. When control over water is taken from the public and handed to corporations, democracy erodes alongside public health.

For fifty years, Section 401 of the Clean Water Act has empowered states and Tribes to protect their waterways by reviewing federal projects before they move forward. This authority allows communities to defend drinking water, fisheries, wetlands, and ecosystems from pollution and long-term harm. It has served as one of the most effective tools for local oversight of powerful industries.

The EPA is now proposing a rule that would sharply narrow this authority. The proposal restricts reviews to only narrow definitions of “direct discharges” into federally protected waters. This change blocks states and Tribes from considering broader environmental impacts such as altered water flows, habitat destruction, groundwater contamination, erosion, and climate-driven harms tied to major infrastructure projects.

The EPA is accepting public comments on this proposal through February 17. This is the moment when community voices still shape the outcome.

Tell the EPA to protect clean water and preserve the authority of states and Tribes to defend their communities.

This proposal shifts power away from communities and toward corporate polluters. Black, Indigenous, and low-income communities already face disproportionate exposure to polluted water and environmental damage. Weakening Section 401 further concentrates risk in the same communities that have long carried the heaviest burdens of industrial pollution.

For decades, courts have recognized the broad role states and Tribes play in protecting water quality. This proposal rewrites that understanding by limiting oversight to narrow technical criteria while ignoring real-world impacts.

The timing of this rule makes its consequences even more severe. Supreme Court decisions have already narrowed the scope of waters covered by the Clean Water Act. This proposal compounds that damage by stripping away one of the last meaningful tools communities have to protect what remains.

Democracy depends on public control over shared resources. Water belongs to the people who rely on it, not to corporations seeking faster approvals and lower costs. The EPA must hear clearly that clean water protections remain a public priority. 

Together, we will fight for environmental justice.

- DFA AF Team