Thousands of the nation’s largest water polluters are outside the Clean Water Act’s reach because the Supreme Court has left uncertain which waterways are protected by that law, according to interviews with regulators. As a result, some businesses are declaring that the law no longer applies to them. And pollution rates are rising.
Companies that have spilled oil, carcinogens and dangerous bacteria into lakes, rivers and other waters are not being prosecuted, according to Environmental Protection Agency regulators working on those cases, who estimate that more than 1,500 major pollution investigations have been discontinued or shelved in the last four years.
Rulings Restrict Clean Water Act, Foiling E.P.A.
Evacuations have been ordered for areas along California’s famous Big Sur coast as a wildfire burns...
Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States, has plummeted to its lowest water level...
Construction crews building a border wall in New Mexico were ordered to stop drilling new wells...
