Army Corps Hands Industry Blank Check to Harm Nation’s Waters
By: Waterkeeper Alliance
Waterkeeper Alliance, the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, and Sierra Club have submitted comments strongly condemning the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ proposal to reissue its Nationwide Permit program. Changes proposed by the Trump administration would pave the way for even more harmful and toxic activities in sensitive waters and wetlands across the United States.
“The proposed 57 nationwide permits would allow the destruction of tens of thousands of acres of waterways and wetlands across the United States without any meaningful review by the government or notice to the public, in gross violation of federal law,” said Daniel E. Estrin, general counsel and legal director of Waterkeeper Alliance. “We urge the Army Corps to rethink its approach to nationwide permitting to ensure that covered activities will truly have only minimal adverse effects as the law requires, and will not put our waters or the people and wildlife that rely on them in jeopardy.”
Despite the huge potential for major environmental damage, the Corps is reauthorizing the program without fulfilling the basic reviews required by the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act, which puts vulnerable ecosystems, critical habitats, and wildlife—such as the threatened whooping crane and the endangered bull trout—at greater risk.
“It’s shameful that Trump’s Army Corps is handing big industry a blank check to contaminate our waters and wetlands with mining waste and oil pollution,” said Margaret Townsend, senior freshwater attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Army Corps’ illegal refusal to comply with fundamental environmental laws like the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act leaves the future of our nation’s waters and wildlife hanging in the balance. This decision is ecologically bankrupt and devastating to human health.”
Under the Corps’ current proposal, the Nationwide Permit program would be reauthorized for another five years. This would allow hundreds of thousands of discharges of dredged or fill material into the nation’s waters and wetlands from a range of industrial activities, including oil and gas development, pipeline construction, coal mining, residential and commercial development, and commercial aquaculture.
“The Nationwide Permit program was never intended to provide a blanket green light to flout our nation’s bedrock environmental laws in the name of industrial development,” said Hallie Templeton, legal director for Friends of the Earth. “What the Corps has proposed is nothing short of unlawful. We will keep fighting on behalf of people and the planet to ensure that the federal government carefully assesses the full range of impacts before approving harmful projects.”
Additionally, the Corps’ proposed modifications aim to expand the scope of the Nationwide Permits, allowing broad categories of activities to proceed with minimal oversight and bypassing necessary environmental reviews. Originally designed to streamline permitting for projects with minimal adverse impacts, the program has been exploited for large-scale industrial operations that result in habitat destruction. The cumulative effects of these activities have led to widespread degradation of aquatic environments, and the proposed reauthorization of the program would only accelerate this damage.
The groups filed a lawsuit challenging the Corps’ Nationwide Permit 12 for oil and gas pipelines in 2021, and continue to object to the newly reissued permit, as it allows pipelines many hundreds and even thousands of miles long to cross waterways and poison wildlife without comprehensive environmental review.
“The Army Corps’ reauthorization of Nationwide Permit 12 would allow massive pipeline projects, hundreds of miles long, to intersect our nation’s waterways with little or no review of environmental impacts, leading to widespread wetland destruction, water pollution, and risks to communities and endangered species,” said Devorah Ancel, senior attorney at Sierra Club. “Clean Water Act and other environmental reviews are essential tools to ensure public access to clean water. The re-issuance of Nationwide Permit 12 is a dangerous handout to fossil fuel company CEOs who regularly complain about the burdens imposed by completing these vital reviews.”