June 12, 2015, 12:30 pm

Clean Water Rule protects national parks 

By Maureen Finnerty

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers have released a new rule to re-extend protections of the Clean Water Act to the headwater streams and wetlands that provide drinking water for one in every three Americans. This is great news for our families; it is also great news for our national parks. Already, more than half of our 407 national parks have waterways deemed “impaired” under the Clean Water Act and in need of attention. 

Finalized in May, the EPA’s common-sense new Waters of the U.S. or Clean Water Rule reestablishes protections for headwaters streams and wetlands -- benefiting downstream national parks, 279 million annual visitors, and gateway communities.  Although polluters may be squealing in protest, the Clean Water Rule is a longtime coming and importantly, restores EPA’s oversight of our drinking water supplies, which were first established by Congress and President Nixon in 1972.   

 

Supreme Court decisions in 2001 and 2006 had created judicial loopholes and uncertainties for developers, agricultural producers, municipal water providers and conservationists about which waterways were worthy of Clean Water Act protections. Groups from the American Farm Bureau to the National Parks Conservation Association asked the EPA to clarify its jurisdiction– so it did, consulting the science, as well as industry, agricultural interests, municipalities and the American public, which sent in nearly one million comments.

The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks also weighed in. Our coalition includes 1,083 former National Park Service employees with over 30,000 years of combined experience. Like me, many of our members have served in parks whose local domestic water supply and protected natural resources are dependent upon and often impacted by the quality of surface water flowing into and through the respective park’s designated boundary.

We believe that this common-sense clean water rule provides ecological, recreational and economic benefits to downstream national parks and communities. With Clean Water Act protections, visitors can safely drink, fish, swim and play in park waterways. Plants and wildlife can depend on healthy streams.

Congress should join national park visitors and tourism-dependent businesses and communities in celebrating what this new rule means for our heritage – not seeking to undermine or delay the rule. Our national parks are our legacy to the next generation; conserving them is our shared responsibility. The 2016 centennial of our parks is a prime opportunity for renewing this commitment. Let’s be sure we can all hold up a clean glass of water at the time.

Finnerty is chair of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks – Voices of Experience. She has three decades of experience with the National Park Service, including serving as superintendent of both Everglades National Park in Florida and Olympic National Park in Washington. She is a recipient of the Department of Interior’s Meritorious Service award.