Put down that glass.
Key provisions in the Clean Water Act are now under the control of one person at the US Environmental Protection Agency -- Administrator Scott Pruitt, according to a leaked memo obtained by CNN.
The Clean Water Act is one of the signature pieces of legislation that turned around overwhelming levels of pollution that were killing America’s lakes and rivers and filling the nation’s water supply with toxins. It is the core mechanism by which the EPA regulations pollution discharge into the waters of the United States, and the primary authority under which the EPA sets standards, tests for pollution and prosecutes violators.
Saying that Scott Pruitt has secretly taken personal control of the Clean Water Act, is like saying that Jeff Sessions has decided he gets to personally decide every murder case in the nation. And Pruitt is more than willing to order those executions.
In the new directive, Pruitt states he will make final critical decisions about preservation of streams, ponds and wetlands.
Pruitt has already rolled back the definition of waters protected by the Clean Water Act to the definition that was developed under the Reagan administration and controversial EPA administrator Anne Gorsuch Burford. But what Pruitt is doing now goes way, way beyond Burford’s actions. He’s claiming the right to ignore the science, ignore his own staff, ignore everything—except his own desire to give polluters free reign.
Pruitt has explicitly stripped authority from his staff and regional administrator and turned himself into America’s Water Czar. By secret fiat. If anyone wants to open a coal mine, pesticide plant, or factory farm, they no longer have to show that their actions won’t damage local streams, rivers, lakes and aquifers. They just need a nod from Pruitt.
If you needed another reason to get rid of Scott Pruitt now … this is a very good one.
Pruitt’s self-bestowed authority gives him the power to authorize anything. Anything.
These projects could be anything from transportation projects to new residential housing, coal mining, oil projects, even President Donald Trump's border wall or "any other project that discharges ... fill material into a wetland or waterway," according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
What Pruitt has done with one secret memo isn’t just to shortcut the EPA process. He’s rendered the EPA superfluous. Forget cutting the agency by thirty percent. He’s just turned the whole thing into a decoration appended to his one-man, double secure, soundproof and bug swept High Castle where he can made any decision he wants behind the safety of his private army.
Forget worries that Pruitt is using his position to drum up support for a presidential run. President is obviously way below his aspirations.