EPA Expands Reach of Clean Water Act

  EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has declared the cement-lined Los Angeles river as "navigable," allowing her agency to enforce Clean Water Act protections throughout the river's 834-square-mile watershed. Recent Supreme Court rulings have strictly interpreted "navigable" as the means of determining which water bodies deserve federal regulatory protections aimed at limiting industrial discharges and protecting wetlands. Repeated efforts by Democrats in Congress to strike the word "navigable" from the Clean Water Act and expand federal regulatory power have failed in the face of intense opposition from agricultural and other industry opponents. The most recent effort appears stalled. The L.A. River's new designation represents a dramatic change from two years ago, when the Army Corps of Engineers proposed declaring limited stretches of the river navigable. Confusion over what waters should be deemed "navigable" stems from two Supreme Court decisions -- Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2001 and Rapanos v. United States in 2006. EPA sources report the agency is currently looking at another river, the Santa Cruz in Arizona, to evaluate its legal status as a "traditional navigable water." AGC will continue to monitor these efforts by EPA and oppose legislative efforts to expand the reach of the Clean Water Act in this manner.