The bill also weakens the Clean Water Act’s general permitting program (administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) for dredging and refilling waters. The bill directs the Corps, when creating general permits, to consider only harm resulting from water filling. No other impacts on water, such as water pollution or groundwater depletion, could be taken into account. Additionally, currently, most general permits can only be used for impacts of half an acre or less; this bill would quadruple that threshold, which could allow larger data centers or other major projects to be eligible. It also extends the duration of general permits, reducing opportunities for public participation in project requirements to once a decade. Finally, it requires the Corps to maintain expedited permits for large “linear” projects that may have major environmental damage, such as roads and pipelines.
The bill also weakens other Clean Water Act programs. This would limit the EPA’s ability to stop projects that dump dredged or fill materials that “have an unacceptable adverse effect on municipal water supplies, shellfish beds and fishing grounds (including spawning and breeding grounds), wildlife, or recreational areas,” something the agency has rarely invoked but has done to protect exceptional habitats threatened by highly damaging projects. It would slow EPA’s development of scientific advice to states on levels of pollutants that could harm aquatic life or people, and it would delay updating discharge requirements for industrial polluters and wastewater treatment plants; Together, these two changes would limit the ability to control “chemicals forever.”
Protection of endangered species is weakened
Language regarding the “best available scientific data” standard could be interpreted to limit precautionary measures when scientific information is uncertain. This is of particular concern when an imperiled population of a species is difficult or expensive to study and waiting for definitive proof could result in irreversible loss.
The bill also allows states to assume responsibilities currently carried out by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Many states do not have the capacity, expertise, or in some cases the commitment to effectively carry out this responsibility, and if a state fails to meet its responsibility, the federal government is not required to take it over.
Oil and gas drillers gain access to resources beneath farmers’ and ranchers’ lands
The bill would exempt from federal licensing many wells drilled on private lands that exploit federal oil and gas reserves, opening at least 57 million acres underground of federal resources to exploitation without federal permits. If passed, this provision deprives thousands of private landowners across the West of important protections, such as the requirement to notify industrial development projects on their property, increases the risk that landowners will be stuck with orphaned wells and their associated environmental and financial costs, and creates new risks of fraud and abuse when it comes to royalty reporting.
Public lands are ceded to the mining industry
The bill allows mining companies to claim an unlimited number of five-acre plant sites on public land to be used for things such as tailings storage (wastewater and rocks often containing heavy metals and other hazardous residues) and landfills. And it allows mining companies to occupy public land for any other use relevant to a mining project, regardless of its proximity to the actual mine, meaning that roads, pipelines, power lines and any other activity previously requiring federal permitting and environmental review would be permitted as long as the activity is included in the mine’s operating plan.
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