ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - New Mexico officials on Thursday said the Trump administration’s move to end federal protections for many of the nation’s streams, arroyos and wetlands will be “disastrous” for the Southwest state.
Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who has been a constant critic of the president, said water is the most important natural resource for the arid state, and stripping protections is an affront to all who call New Mexico home.
“My administration is committed to protecting New Mexico’s precious waters and will consider all legal options to prevent this rule from going into effect. This is far from over,” she proclaimed in a statement.
The change to the clean water rule had long been sought by builders, oil and gas developers, farmers and others. It narrows the Obama administration’s 2015 definition of what is a protected body of water and effectively removes safeguards for some waterways that had been previously put into place.
State officials first raised concerns last year about plans to narrow the types of waterways that qualify for federal protection under the half-century-old Clean Water Act. In comments submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers, the state argued the changes would lead to further problems and uncertainties as temperatures increase and precipitation patterns shift.
State officials said droughts will affect water levels in rivers, lakes and streams, leaving less water to dilute pollutants. They also warned of more frequent and powerful storms increasing polluted runoff from urban and agricultural areas and into nearby waterways.
“Water management is complex and a lack of connectivity or perenniality today is not a feature that Southwestern states, and New Mexico in particular, can rely upon to define a ‘water of the U.S.’ It is so much more than that,” New Mexico officials said in the comments.
A little less than 7% of New Mexico’s streams and rivers are perennial, with the remaining 93% being intermittent or ephemeral, according to state officials.
Environmentalists have pointed to the Rio Grande, which provides drinking water and irrigation supplies for millions of people in the Southwest U.S. and Mexico. One of North America’s longest rivers, the Rio Grande depends largely on the types of intermittent streams, creeks and wetlands that could lose protection under the rule.
Jen Pelz, the rivers program director with WildEarth Guardians, said the Rio Grande would be hard hit.
“It defies common sense to leave unprotected the arteries of life to the desert Southwest,” she said.
State Environment Secretary James Kenney said the EPA failed to consult with his department after it submitted the comments on the draft rule. He accused federal officials of ignoring science as well as states’ rights.
EPA head Andrew Wheeler told reporters Thursday that states were still free to step in with state protections of newly vulnerable waterways if they chose.
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