Send a Public Comment to EPA: No Water Polluter Loophole

EPA wants to make it easier for polluters to poison our nation’s water. Help us stop the latest assault on our water and health!

Administrator Andrew Wheeler and Trump's EPA have a complete disregard for our water. The latest assault comes on the heels of the Dirty Water Rule and is another handout to polluting industries.

On Monday, April 15, 2019, EPA announced that it would not protect surface waters contaminated with pollution that first moves through groundwater. This is a complete reversal from how EPA and states have acted in the past. The agency has required permits for this type of pollution for decades and it’s reckless to reverse course now.

It makes no sense for the Clean Water Act to cover pollution dumped from a pipe into a river, but not pollution that flows through groundwater into that same river.

Pollution from livestock feedlots, coal ash impoundments, sewage injection wells, pipelines, and other industrial sources can all enter surface waters by way of groundwater first. We can’t protect our surface waters if we allow them to become contaminated by nearby polluted groundwater. This decision ignores the fact EPA has required permits for this type of pollution for decades. And less than three years ago EPA said sewage injected in a well that reaches the ocean through groundwater requires a Clean Water Act permit.

Click here to submit a comment through Clean Water Action here. 

Please, consider personalizing the sample message below by following this link. 

Send to: Administrator Wheeler, Environmental Protection Agency 

Subject: Re: Docket ID No. EPA- HQ-OW-2019-0166

Dear Administrator Wheeler,

I strongly oppose the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision not to protect surface waters contaminated with pollution that first moves through groundwater. EPA and states have required permits for this type of pollution for decades and it’s reckless to reverse course now. It makes no sense for the Clean Water Act to cover pollution dumped from a pipe into a river, but not pollution that flows through groundwater into that same river. 

Your decision is nothing more than a handout to heavy polluting industries and will create a dangerous new loophole in the Clean Water Act. EPA must continue to hold industries accountable for dumping chemicals and other pollutants into groundwater that contaminates our nation’s rivers, lakes, and bays.

Public Comment period ends in June 7, 2019. 

Submit a formal public comment here

Tell the EPA: Save the Clean Water Rule

The petition to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler reads: "The EPA's proposal to drastically weaken Clean Water Act protections is unacceptable. Abandon this proposed rollback and return to the 2015 Clean Water Rule, which helped protect drinking water sources for 117 million Americans." Add your name: Wheeler wants to get rid of a rule that helps protect the drinking water for 117 million Americans.1 Under his leadership, the EPA published a proposal to replace the Obama-era Clean Water Rule with the aptly named Dirty Water Rule, a far weaker alternative.Republicans in Washington may not care much about the environment, but you would think that anyone would want to protect their own drinking water. But apparently for Andrew Wheeler, Trump's EPA chief, helping polluters profit is a higher priority. But the proposed rule isn't law yet. The EPA is taking comments on the Dirty Water Rule until April 15. Sign the petition now and CREDO will file a comment on your behalf. Tell the EPA: Abandon the Dirty Water Rule and protect our waterways and streams. Click here to sign the petition. From the Great Lakes to Puget Sound to rivers across the South, America's waterways are at risk. Our rivers, lakes and bays depend on the streams that feed them and wetlands that filter out pollutants. But the Trump EPA rule change would remove Clean Water Act protections for thousands of streams and wetlands.2 And it could get even worse: One part of the rule could rip protections from nearly 60% of our nation's streams.3 The EPA's reckless rule change is not supported by scientific evidence. It is being promoted and rushed through the rulemaking process with little public input. But polluters have been pushing this for years, and they are thrilled. We need to stand up for clean water and make sure that the EPA hears loud and clear that getting rid of the Clean Water Rule is unacceptable. Tell the EPA: Abandon the Dirty Water Rule and protect our waterways and streams. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/dirty-water-rule?t=9&akid=32211%2E3130208%2ELEih_V, - Brandy Doyle, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Environmental Protection Agency, "Geographic Information Systems Analysis of the Surface Drinking Water Provided by Intermittent, Ephemeral and Headwater Streams in the U.S." July 2009. Nathan Rott, "Trump EPA Proposes Major Rollback Of Federal Water Protections," NPR, Dec. 11, 2018.

TAKE ACTION! Tell the EPA to drop its rollback of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards

The Trump administration is trying to slash the lifesaving protections that keep neuro-poisons like mercury and arsenic out of our air, water, and food chain.

Under the leadership of former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler, the Environmental Protection Agency is making a mockery of its mission to protect public health by moving forward with efforts to gut the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS). These critical protections are already in place and prevent up to 11,000 premature deaths and 130,000 asthma attacks — annually.

What the Trump administration is doing is reckless and unacceptable. We need you to speak up — alongside business groups, faith and environmental justice leaders, moms, and medical organizations — and call on the administration to halt its plans and keep MATS in place.

Coal-fired power plants are the worst of the worst industrial polluters. Until the MATS rule came on line, coal plants accounted for half of the total man-made emissions of mercury in America and more than half of all arsenic, hydrochloric acid, hydrogen fluoride, and selenium emissions.

- Earth Justice

Click here to send the following message: 

(Consider adding a personal comment for more impact.) 

It is very troubling to me that the Environmental Protection Agency wants to undermine the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATs). The EPA’s mission is to protect human health and the environment, but this action aims to rollback a rule that prevents up to 11,000 premature deaths, 130,000 asthma attacks, and 5,700 hospital visits annually.

The industry has already complied with the regulation. EPA’s new proposal invites litigation by bad actors – power companies that want to turn off or tear out their controls – to have the MATs rule thrown out. The worst power plants would be allowed to emit more mercury, arsenic, and other toxic pollution. We aren't willing to sacrifice our health so that the coal-fired power industry can rake in higher profits.

Everyone, no matter their zip code, has the right to clean air and healthy environments. Please stop the rollback of the US EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS).

Sign the petition: Demand the U.S. Senate reject Andrew Wheeler for the EPA

Andrew Wheeler, Donald Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has built a career rooted in looking out for the coal industry — not everyday Americans. He spent years lobbying for Murray Energy, the largest coal mining conglomerate in the United States.

It’s no coincidence that they trust Wheeler to enact their dangerous deregulation agenda. Andrew Wheeler:

• Proposed undermining the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), critical protections that limit the amount of mercury and other toxins power plants are allowed to release into the air. These safeguards protect children and families from exposure to mercury, a horribly damaging neurotoxin.
• Struck rules on the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), the super-potent climate-changing, ozone-destroying pollutants used in refrigeration, air conditioning, insulation, aerosols, and other products.
• Scaled back a ban on deadly paint strippers containing methylene chloride, putting workers at grave risk from these products.
• Declared an all-out war on clean cars.

The Trump-Wheeler deregulation agenda is a clear assault on our economy, environment, and public health. Wheeler cannot be trusted to lead an agency that is critical to keeping the air we breathe and the water our kids drink safe. On his watch, the EPA will do more harm than good and provide nothing but cover for bad corporate actors and polluters.

Let's send a message to the Trump administration and his allies in the fossil fuel industry: demand the Senate reject Wheeler’s nomination.

Click here to send the following message to U.S. Senate:

(Consider adding a personalized note for more impact.)

The Trump-Wheeler deregulation agenda is a clear assault on our economy, environment, and public health. Wheeler cannot be trusted to lead an agency that is critical to keeping the air we breathe and the water our kids drink safe. On his watch, the EPA will do more harm than good and provide nothing but cover for bad corporate actors and polluters. Vote NO on Andrew Wheeler.

Participating Partner Organizations:

Climate Hawks Vote
Corporate Accountability
CREDO
Daily Kos
League of Conservation Voters
Rootstrikers
SierraRis

Tell Senators to oppose Wheeler for the EPA

This week, President Trump officially nominated Andrew Wheeler to be the Administrator or the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Senate Republicans are trying to rush a hearing on his nomination next week even though the federal government, including the EPA, is still shutdown.

As Acting Administrator, Wheeler has already done the bidding of corporate polluters, proposing new rules that allow cars, trucks, power plants, and industrial facilities to emit more pollution and. We can't let Wheeler's nomination coast through, especially when the government is shutdown, and Superfund sites go uncleaned, and our air and water is at risk.

Tell your senators to oppose Andrew Wheeler's nomination to Administrator of the EPA!

What has Wheeler done as Acting Administrator? He gutted the coal ash rule, clean car standards, methane standards, and is putting forward a Dirty Power Plan that the EPA's own analysis says will cause an additional 1,400 deaths each year due to more pollution. 

He is also pushing plans to ruin the lifesaving Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, opening the door to more toxic mercury and particulate matter pollution from coal plants and jeopardizing the health of women and children. Wheeler';s proposal ignores the massive reductions in toxic pollution brought by these standards and the up to 11,000 lives saved and approximately 130,000 asthma attacks avoided per year as a result of this protection.

Furthermore, Wheeler is pushing to redefine which U.S. waterways are covered by the Clean Water Act, putting drinking water for one in three Americans at risk.

Andrew Wheeler is clearly unfit to oversee the agency that was created to protect our air, water, and climate. We must oppose his nomination.

Wheeler shows the same signs of ethical misconduct as Scott Pruitt, disregarding ethics and conflict of interest concerns while meeting with big polluters and pushing their dirty policies at the expense of our health and environment. As if that weren't enough, Wheeler, like his ousted predecessor, Pruitt, has seen his share of scandal. Wheeler has shared and liked racist posts on social media and engaged with right-wing trolls and conspiracy theorists. 

Senate Republicans confirming Andrew Wheeler to lead the EPA is just like putting the Hamburglar in charge of McDonald's, because he will do nothing to protect the health of the public and everything to enrich corporate polluters.

We can't let a coal lobbyist doing the bidding of corporate polluters lead the EPA.Tell your senators to oppose his nomination!

https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/National?actionId=AR0132715&id=7010Z000001qlwKQAQ&data=c6354268c665c3877411dba30438f5e859a716ec550e121d5d9af5f70f027eae0d96cbf4fe24cae443218f87a7686f9b&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sierraclub&utm_campaign=resist

- Melinda Pierce, Sierra Club

SUBMIT A COMMENT: STOP THE DIRTY POWER SCAM

The Trump administration’s “Dirty Power Scam” is a dire threat to everyone’s right to clean air and a healthy environment. This thinly veiled attempt to dismantle President Obama’s Clean Power Plan ignores settled climate and health science and eviscerates the first limits on carbon pollution from existing fossil-fueled power plants.

We only have until October 31 to submit comments on this outrageous proposal. Tell the EPA to stop the Dirty Power Scam.

The administration’s own analysis found that the Clean Power Plan could prevent as many as 4,500 early deaths each year by 2030 and provide up to $54 billion in health and climate benefits. It also encourages investment in cleaner, safer energy sources like wind and solar, which already employ three times as many Americans as every fossil fuel industry combined.

Despite overwhelming evidence of the devastating effects of burning fossil fuels, and broad public support for the Clean Power Plan, Donald Trump and Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler are attempting to turn back the clock on its protections. Instead of safeguarding our health, they want to protect corporate polluters.

Time is running out to take meaningful action on climate change. For the sake of our planet, and for this and future generations, we must stop Trump and Wheeler from overturning the Clean Power Plan.

It’s time to mobilize to stop this giveaway to Trump’s greedy dirty industry allies. Tell the EPA we want clean, renewable energy that will help stop climate change, not the Dirty Power Scam.

- Earth Justice 

CLICK HERE TO SEND THE COMMENT BELOW

(Please, add a personalized paragraph so they don't disregard it as a form letter.) 

Dear Environmental Protection Agency,

I urge you to reject the Dirty Power Scam -- the Trump administration’s proposal to replace the Obama-era Clean Power Plan with a scheme that benefits big polluters. Instead of taking the lead on clean energy solutions and combating climate change, the United States has been lagging behind, and worse, is now signaling an about-face. This is unacceptable. 

As you know, the Clean Power Plan placed the first limits on the carbon pollution responsible for climate change from the electric power sector – one of the worst contributors. Forgoing carbon limits puts public health at risk and puts the U.S. economy behind other nations that are embracing clean energy alternatives. Your own estimates indicate that the plan will prevent 4,500 early deaths each year by 2030 and generate $54 billion in climate and health benefits. 

Fighting climate change, improving public health, and boosting our economy go hand in hand. The Dirty Power Scam would do nothing to solve climate change: It’s nothing more than an ill-fated and desperate attempt to bailout greedy corporate polluters. 

Again, I urge you to shelve the Dirty Power Scam or any other effort that seeks to backtrack on or stall the Clean Power Plan. Thank you for considering my views.

We only have until October 31 to submit comments on this outrageous proposal. Tell the EPA to stop the Dirty Power Scam.

Tell the EPA: Don't devalue the human health aspect of the Mercury Rule to gut environmental rules

Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin produced by burning coal. It contaminates the fish we eat and causes brain damage and reduced IQs in infants and small children.

The petition to the EPA reads: "Don't devalue human health to gut rules on mercury or other air pollutants. Regulators must consider all benefits of a rule, including co-benefits, when protecting our health and environment." Add your name:

To make it easier to gut environmental regulations, the Trump administration has a new plan: It wants to change how the government values human health. By changing the cost-benefit analysis of air pollution rules to ignore the lives the rules will save, Trump's EPA will open the door to repealing them – and make it far harder to pass environmental protections in the future. Devaluing human health is a grotesque strategy with predictable consequences: More people will get sick or die. The EPA started by proposing to gut an important rule on mercury, but the consequences of changing its calculations could fundamentally change how we can protect ourselves and the environment. Tell Trump's EPA: Do not devalue human health in order to weaken rules on mercury and other air pollutants. Click here to sign the petition. Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin produced by burning coal. It contaminates the fish we eat and causes brain damage and reduced IQs in infants and small children.1 A 2011 Obama administration rule forced power plants to substantially reduce mercury emissions.2 Now Trump wants to reverse the rule by deciding that environmental regulators must ignore "co-benefits," all of the extra benefits from an environmental rule beyond its narrow stated purpose.3 Because the harms of mercury are hard to calculate, the Obama administration justified the rule partly by considering all the lives and money saved because of the rule's other benefits – reducing air particulates and helping the climate by closing down coal plants. Trump wants to discount these benefits completely. The Trump administration's apathy to human health should not be surprising. Andrew Wheeler, the new head of Trump's EPA, is a former coal lobbyist for one of the nation's largest coal companies, Murray Energy. Wheeler's former boss, CEO Robert Murray, was a major donor to Trump’s inauguration fund, and he personally requested the rollback of the mercury rule.4 Gutting the mercury rule is a gift to the coal industry, and it comes at the expense of children's brains. We must loudly oppose this proposal and any other attempt at changing the cost-benefit analysis of rules that discount their full impact on human health. Tell Trump's EPA: Do not devalue human health in order to weaken rules on mercury and other air pollutants. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/mercury?t=5&akid=30378%2E3130208%2EpNgTIB - Brandy Doyle, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Brad Plumer, "How to tally up the benefits from EPA’s mercury rule," The Washington Post, Dec. 22, 2011. Ibid. Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis, "In rollback of mercury rule, Trump could revamp how government values human health," The Washington Post, Oct. 1, 2018. Coral Davenport, "Trump Administration Prepares a Major Weakening of Mercury Emissions Rules," The New York Times, Sept. 30, 2018.

Finally! Some good news from the EPA! ----- A Win Against Dirty Trucks

We did it! More than 14,000 UCS supporters weighed in with acting EPA Administrator Wheeler and told him to do the right thing on dirty trucks...and it worked!

Andrew Wheeler, acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just announced that he won’t follow former Administrator Scott Pruitt in giving super polluting trucks a temporary pass on pollution regulations.

This is an important victory for science-based decision making–and science champions like you played a critical role.

With new shiny shells but old dirty engines, these dirty trucks (or glider vehicles) only make up five percent of the freight fleet, but they emit a third of the pollution for ALL long-haul trucks. And the toxic pollution emitted from these vehicles could cause at least 1,600 premature deaths every year and is hundreds of times more pollution than from new trucks. It’s safe to say that this is a win for public health—especially for folks who live in proximity to trucking corridors.

We may have won this battle, but we aren’t completely out of the woods just yet. The rule to limit the pollution from these vehicles is still under threat, but acting Administrator Wheeler has the power to do the right thing. We’ll be looking to science champions like you to help us push him to, once and for all, kill these dirty trucks. But for now, let’s savor this victory and celebrate!

Thank you for all your support. We won this together.

- Anisha Mehta, Union of Concerned Scientists

Reject Trump's coal lobbyist pick at the EPA

purple mountains majesty 

The petition to the Senate reads: "Block and resist the nomination of coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler for deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency." Add your name:

If you thought Donald Trump's war on the climate and our environment couldn't get any worse, think again. Last year, Trump nominated coal industry lobbyist Andrew Wheeler to fill the number two spot at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), doubling down on his anti-climate agenda and his dangerous campaign promise to prop up the failing dirty coal industry. News broke Wednesday morning that after Wheeler was nominated, he hosted fundraisers for at least two Republican senators on the Environment and Public Works Committee.1 Republicans on the committee responded just a few hours later by advancing his nomination to the full senate on a party line vote. We must urge the Senate to block and resist this dangerous climate change denier’s nomination before it comes up for a vote in the next few weeks. Tell the Senate: No coal lobbyists at the EPA. Click here to sign the petition. For nearly a decade, Wheeler lobbied for the coal industry and other polluters, and since 2009, he has been a registered lobbyist for Murray Energy, the largest coal mining conglomerate in the country. Murray Energy's CEO, Robert Murray, who famously tried to sue HBO's John Oliver over an accurate exposé about the coal industry, is an outspoken climate change denier who regularly peddles in blatant lies, believes the Earth is cooling and recently falsely claimed 4,000 scientists told him that "mankind is not affecting climate change."2 During the time Murray Energy was Wheeler's client, the coal giant regularly sued the EPA to prevent stricter regulations on ozone and carbon emissions and other pollutants, including leading a lawsuit with a number of Republican-led states against the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan, of which Trump and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt recently moved to reverse.3 Wheeler, who believes the Earth may be going through a "cooling phase," also previously served as a close adviser to notorious anti-science climate change denier Sen. James Inhofe, who once brought a snowball to the Senate floor in a pathetic attempt to disprove climate change.4 Time and time again, Trump is attempting to put the fox in charge of watching the henhouse and packing the EPA with anti-climate zealots to line the pockets of his friends in the fossil fuel industry. The Senate will be holding a final vote on Wheeler's nomination soon, so we must act now to demand they stop this climate-denying coal lobbyist from ever setting foot inside the EPA. Tell the Senate: No coal lobbyists at the EPA. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/reject_wheeler_epa?t=7&akid=27206%2E3130208%2E32Loq1 - Josh Nelson, CREDO Action Add your name: Photo: Educational Images/Getty Images References Lee Fang and Nick Surgey, “Coal lobbyist hosted fundraisers for Senators evaluating his nomination for top EPA post,” The Intercept, Feb. 7, 2018. Marianne Lavelle, "Coal Boss Takes Climate Change Denial to the Extreme," InsideClimate News, Oct. 11, 2017. Samantha Page, "Coal company loses 'war on coal' case," Think Progress, June 29, 2017. Natasha Geiling, "Trump nominates a coal lobbyist to the number two spot at EPA," Think Progress, Oct. 5, 2017.

Tell your senators John McCain and Jeff Flake to reject all of President Trump's pro-polluter nominees for key positions in the EPA

Trump wants to install four big polluter allies in key positions at the EPA and the White House — and the Senate could move forward with these toxic nominees at any time. Tell your senators to say NO!

Take Action

A coal lobbyist. A tobacco industry consultant. An energy industry attorney. A climate change denier.

What do they all have in common?

They could all soon hold key environmental positions at the EPA and the White House.

How can anyone entrust protection of our environment or health to these individuals who've spent their careers working for big polluters?

But before these anti-environment nominees can take office, they have to get past the Senate.

Tell your senators — John McCain and Jeff Flake — to reject all of President Trump's pro-polluter nominees for key positions charged with defending our environment.

Trump's EPA chief, Scott Pruitt, has already been hard at work eviscerating the common-sense safeguards that protect our clean water and air, and stalling our progress in fighting climate change. Now, these new nominees have the potential to wreak even more havoc on our environment and public health:

Andrew Wheeler, nominated to be Pruitt's EPA deputy, has spent the past eight years as a lobbyist for the coal industry and other industrial polluters, fighting against efforts to limit dangerous carbon pollution. Tell your senators: Vote NO.

Michael Dourson, Trump's pick to oversee chemical safety and pollution prevention at the EPA, has spent decades as a consultant doing the bidding of chemical and tobacco companies. He's built a career out of making it easier for companies to expose people to unsafe levels of toxic chemicals linked to cancer — and even fought to allow them in municipal drinking water supplies. Stop Trump's toxic nominees.

Bill Wehrum served as acting head of the EPA's clean air office under President George W. Bush. Courts found that, under his leadership, his office violated the Clean Air Act over 30 times, and increased dangerous air pollution. But Trump has nominated him to take control of the office again. Tell your senators to stand up for clean air and water.

Kathleen Hartnett White, Trump's nominee to serve as chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality is a career fossil fuel apologist and oil industry shill. Not only does she deny the threat of climate change, she has dismissed the promise of renewable energy as "diffuse, unreliable, and parasitic" — in total opposition to all science and evidence. Don't let these anti-environment extremists set environmental policy.

The protection of our environment and health is not a game for hucksters and fools.It's one of the most serious responsibilities of government. And it can't be left to Trump and his climate denying, pro-polluter allies.

The Senate could move forward with these nominees at any time, so we must act now: Tell your senators to vote NO on all four of these toxic nominees, and to pressure their colleagues to do the same.


- Rhea Suh, NRDC Action Fund