EPA extends comment period for proposed changes to Clean Water Act

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have extended the comment period for a proposed rule to clarify “waters of the United States” as defined under the Clean Water Act.

Water Quality Basics

Why does water quality matter?

Contaminants are harmful to human health, especially to vulnerable populations such as the elderly or the very young. The quality of a stream or wetland affects everyone's health, from the plants and animals that live in it to the people who live downstream. If water is unsuitable for a particular purpose, we have to find alternative resources, sometimes at high cost.

Water Availability Basics

Why does water availability matter?

Water is vital for agriculture, human consumption, industry, and energy generation. If local surface water and groundwater are used up or contaminated beyond use, it becomes necessary to turn to alternative, often more expensive water sources.

Flood Basics

Why do floods matter?

Flooding is the most common, and costliest, natural hazard facing the United States. The National Weather Service published reports on flood damages and deaths until 2014. From 1984 to 2014 floods caused an average of $8 billion in damages and 82 deaths per year nationwide.^[1]

Drought Basics

Extreme drought is part of natural climatic cycles around the world. Historic records and prehistoric reconstructions extending back 1000 years document that extreme droughts have occurred repeatedly in North America, sometimes for longer periods than even the most severe droughts of the 20th century.^[1] Research on climate variability is addressing how drought may impact the United States in the future.

President Obama establishes world's largest marine reserve

On September 25, President Obama announced the addition of more than 490,000 square miles of federally protected waters around the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument in the southern Pacific Ocean south and west of Hawaii, making it the largest marine reserve in the world.

House Natural Resources Committee approves bills supporting surface water storage projects

On September 18, Democrats and Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee approved three bills that help to create and expand surface storage water projects.

House passes bill blocking proposed changes to Clean Water Act

On September 9, a majority of House Republicans united with 35 Democrats to successfully pass H.R. 5078, a bill blocking the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed changes to the Clean Water Act (CWA).

EARTH Magazine: Virtual Water: Tracking the Unseen Water in Goods and Resources

“Virtual water” was coined in 1993 to help explain why long-predicted water wars driven by water and food security had not occurred among the arid nations of the Middle East and North Africa. The virtual water notion refers basically to the total amount of freshwater, either from rainfall or irrigation, used in the production of food commodities, including crops and fodder-fed livestock, or other goods and services — agricultural, industrial or otherwise. Taking root in the late 1990s across a range of disciplines, the concept has since expanded and evolved.

Interactive map of water quality at the state and local level

Note: Surf Your Watershed was recently decommissioned. EPA is working on a replacement application. We will direct users to that application when it becomes available.

American Geosciences Institute

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