WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Environmental Protection Agency’s new rule on “Waters of the United States” serves as an appropriate reset of the Trump Administration’s dangerous rollback of longstanding clean water protections.

“Recent rollbacks of clean water protections left countless communities and ecosystems in danger,” said Jim Murphy, director of legal advocacy for the National Wildlife Federation. “While there is still much work to be done to ensure all Americans have clean water, the EPA’s new rule will help protect the streams, wetlands, rivers, and lakes people and wildlife depend upon from pollution and other threats. We thank EPA administrators for their efforts to safeguard the nation’s waters.”

EPA’s rule reinstates protection levels consistent with longstanding Clean Water Act requirements in place prior to the Trump Administration.

For more on the Clean Water Act and the uncertainties facing waters across the nation see the National Wildlife Federation’s recent report, Five Decades of Clean Water.