House-Passed Water Permitting Bill Poses Serious Threat to Bay Restoration

The House of Representatives today passed legislation that would unravel Clean Water Act protections that safeguard people’s health, protect our waters from pollution, and play a central role in restoring the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers and streams. 

The Promoting Efficient Review for Modern Infrastructure Today (PERMIT) Act passed by a vote of 221-205. Billed as a measure to cut red tape, streamline the permitting process, and provide business with regulatory certainty, the PERMIT Act instead would: 

• Cripple states’ and tribes’ authority to protect critical water bodies from pollution from federally permitted projects such as construction of oil and gas pipelines. 
• Allow polluters to knowingly dump “forever chemicals” like PFAS and other emerging contaminants into our waters without accountability. 
• Weaken the Army Corps of Engineers’ already lax nationwide permitting program, which is supposed to prevent and mitigate damage caused by construction projects that fill in water bodies and wetlands. 
• Enshrine in the Clean Water Act exemptions from the law’s protections for streams that don’t flow year-round, groundwater, wastewater treatment systems, and certain agricultural lands, making it impossible for future administrations to fix these loopholes without Congress amending the law. 
• Give the Army Corps of Engineers blanket authority to exclude any kind of water body from Clean Water Act protections with no input from EPA. 

If the PERMIT Act became law, the Bay region would lose remaining protections not already gutted in the Trump administration’s destructive rollback of the Clean Water Act’s safeguards for wetlands. Wetlands provide wildlife habitat, help protect communities from storm surges and flooding, and act as natural filters that improve water quality in the Bay and its rivers and streams across the region. 

Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) Senior Policy Director Keisha Sedlacek released the following statement:

“This dangerous bill would increase water pollution, accelerate wetlands destruction, give polluters a free pass, and threaten to reverse states’ hard-won gains restoring the Bay and its rivers and streams. The harm it could do is staggering. 

“The families, communities, and businesses of the Bay region depend on clean water for everything from drinking and cooking to making a living and enjoying time outdoors. Clean water is essential for iconic Bay species like blue crabs, oysters, and osprey.

 “Congress should be strengthening the Clean Water Act, not undermining it. House members from the Bay region and everyone who values clean water and holding polluters accountable must reject this destructive legislation.”