State would be wise to build upon Biden’s efforts on water protections

Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021 | 2 a.m.

In restoring federal protections for hundreds of thousands of small streams, wetlands and other waterways, the Biden administration took a step forward for the health of Americans and for the environment.

The move came in mid-November, when the administration announced it would reinstate protections afforded by the federal Clean Water Act to 2015 levels. The purpose was to undo a rollback of the regulations by the previous administration, and reset the bar on protections while the Biden administration works on its own set of standards.

Under a 2015 rule established by the Environmental Protection Agency under President Barack Obama, federal protections were extended to nearly 60% of America’s waterways. But in 2018, the Trump-era EPA drastically reduced the regulations, leaving streams and wetlands across the nation more vulnerable to contamination by fracking chemicals, industrial solvents, lead compounds and other heavy metals from mining, and so on. The rollback had been sought for years by the likes of Big Oil and Big Ag.

A federal judge in Arizona threw out the Trump rule and restored a standard that had been set in 1986, but which offered narrower protections than the 2015 rule. At issue throughout is what constitutes a waterway — former President Donald Trump narrowed the definition, and President Joe Biden broadened it back out so as to include more streams and wetlands.

This was the right thing to do for ecosystems and for the nation’s water supply.

The need to protect waterways isn’t just about saving flora and fauna in watersheds from pollution. It’s about ensuring that Americans have safe drinking water.

Shamefully, far too many Americans live in areas where they can’t get clean water out of their taps — some 30 million are served by water systems that violate federal safety rules, according to the EPA. It’s a problem that goes way beyond Flint, Mich.

Biden’s infrastructure bill will help by giving communities resources to modernize their water treatment systems and water-supply pipes, but much more will be needed to get clean water all the way from the sky through the watershed and to the tap.

While the Biden administration has taken appropriate steps, it unfortunately has left too much of the responsibility for clean water to local jurisdictions. We saw the danger of this in Flint, where cost-cutting by local officials led to high levels of lead in the drinking water and where city authorities ignored or discounted reports of contamination for years.

In situations like this, the federal government is needed. Biden must make water quality for all communities a high priority for the EPA.

The good news is that Las Vegas’ drinking water remained safe throughout the Trump administration and continues to be safe today. The Colorado River was protected then and now, although the rollback did affect areas that flow into the river.

Biden’s move eases the threat of contamination for Las Vegas residents and for the rest of Nevada, most of which relies on groundwater.

But considering that the definition of a waterway isn’t set in stone — and can change from administration to administration, as we’ve seen — it’s incumbent upon Nevada’s state leaders to protect our watersheds as best we can without running afoul of federal regulations.

The threat to our water supply is a real and present danger, considering that the state ranks No. 2 nationally in the amount of toxic chemicals released into the environment, as rated by the EPA. Alaska is the only state that ranks above us.

In Nevada, where drought fueled by climate change puts increasing stress on our water supply, we have no choice but to keep our dwindling supply of water clean. The Biden administration is helping in that regard, but there’s much more work to do.