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IMAGE: Victor Flatt, Dwight Olds Chair in Law at the University of Houston Law Center, is co-author of the study published in Journal Science. view more
Credit: University of Houston Law Center
The familiar murkiness of waters in the Gulf of Mexico can be off-putting for beachgoers visiting Galveston Island. Runoff from the Mississippi River makes its way to local beaches and causes downstream water to turn opaque and brown. Mud is one factor, and river runoff is another. However, concern tends to ratchet up a notch when pollution enters the river runoff discussion on a national scale, specifically when smaller, navigable intrastate bodies of water push pollution into larger interstate waters often involved in commerce (i.e. the Mississippi River, Great Lakes, Ohio River).
Filling Federal Oversight Gaps
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Federal Water Rule Does Not Account for Pollution Across State Boundaries
AUSTIN, Texas – In a research analysis to be published Friday in Science, scholars contend that a new federal water rule enacted in 2020 does not adequately account for transboundary pollution across state lines.
One of the government’s rationales for enacting the new rule, which removed millions of acres of wetlands and millions of miles of streams from federal protection, was an assumption that states would fill gaps in federal oversight. The research analysis, co-authored by Sheila Olmstead of the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin, suggests this may not occur.
Who’s Going to Take Responsibility for Air Pollution in Texas?
Legal experts say that environmental laws must be more strongly enforced by the government to protect the health and safety of Texans.
A plume of smoke rises from a petrochemical fire at the Intercontinental Terminals Company in Deer Park, Texas, in March 2019. AP Photo/David J. Phillip
Legal experts say that environmental laws must be more strongly enforced by the government to protect the health and safety of Texans.
A plume of smoke rises from a petrochemical fire at the Intercontinental Terminals Company in Deer Park, Texas, in March 2019. AP Photo/David J. Phillip
New Report Says EPA Used Dubious Methodology to Justify Weakening the Clean Water Act Report co-authored by UMass Amherst economist David Keiser says EPA analysis assumes states will step in to protect waterways as wetlands and streams lose federal protection
December 17, 2020
David Keiser
AMHERST, Mass. – The Trump administration’s decision to remove federal Clean Water Act protections from millions of acres of wetlands and millions of miles of streams is based on dubious methodology and flawed logic, according to a new report by environmental economists from leading research institutions across the U.S, including the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers repealed the Obama-era Clean Water Rule, which clarified which bodies of water fell under federal protection from pollution under the 1972 Clean Water Act. Earlier this year, the agencies replaced that r
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