Clean Water Defense - Waterkeeper

Clean Water Defense

Waterkeeper Alliance Calls on Congress for Safeguards After Supreme Court Delivers Blow to Clean Water Act


Court’s Decision Prioritizes Polluting Industries Over Clean Water and Public Health and Ignores Decades of Legal Precedent, Science, and Clean Water...

What’s Up With WOTUS?


What’s Up With WOTUS? In recent weeks, you may have seen news stories about “WOTUS” or “Waters of the United States.” The argument over what...

Coalition Sues EPA Over Unregulated Water Pollution From Oil Refineries, Plastics Plants, and Other Industries


A coalition of environmental groups, including Waterkeeper Alliance, filed a federal lawsuit today against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)...

Op-Ed: The Climate Crisis is a Water Crisis


By Marc Yaggi This week, many of us from around the world—including environmentalists, politicians, corporate leaders, and more— gathered at the United...

Waterkeeper Alliance Delivers Natural Water Systems Declaration to United Nations 


Today, as part of its participation in the 2023 UN Water Conference, Waterkeeper Alliance delivered a declaration on behalf of a global coalition calling...

Waterkeeper Alliance Applauds EPA’s Plan to Limit PFAS Contamination in Drinking Water 


Today, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a new rule for regulating PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in drinking water. The agency...

Waterkeeper Alliance Responds to EPA’s Latest Plan for Regulating PFAS Discharges; Points to New Great Lakes Study as Reason for More Urgency


Waterkeeper Alliance is responding to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) release of its latest plan for controlling PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl...

Dive Into Democracy: 2022 Year In Review


Through our Dive Into Democracy blog and email series, we informed and engaged our U.S. audience on the most pressing clean water issues of the day. In...

New Guidance from EPA will Help States Limit PFAS Pollution at the Source


This week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a memorandum to states that provides direction on how to use Clean Water Act discharge permits...

EPA’s Newly Proposed Rule to Enhance Reporting of PFAS Data is a Step in the Right Direction


The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a new rule to close the minimum loophole from using per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). This...

Loreto Coastkeeper

Monitoring Water Quality With Loreto Coastkeeper


Eco-Alianza de Loreto started Loreto Coastkeeper program in 2012 and began analyzing water quality at recreational sites along the coast of the Loreto...

COP27: Groups warn of severe climate and human rights risk of new hydropower dams and schemes


Dams and hydropower schemes create major loss and damage, including producing significant amounts of methane, biodiversity loss, and community displacement....

Estero Salado Waterkeeper

Estero Salado Waterkeeper’s Efforts to Protect Waterway Arrives at COP 27


Estero Salado Waterkeeper’s efforts to protect and restore the waters of the Estero Salado, the main saltwater estuary running through the city of Guayaquil,...

AP Coverage of Waterkeeper Drone Tactics


Earlier this month at the Waterkeeper Alliance Global Conference, Upper Potomac Riverkeeper Brent Walls led a drone training sessions for interested Waterkeeper...

Otters on the Severn


It is hard to believe that otters are happily swimming in the Severn River, only a few miles upstream of Maryland’s State Capital. Several years ago,...

Keeping an eye on stormwater pollution


By Steve Holt. Originally published by Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeeper, republished with permission. Stormwater is one of the most significant threats to...

Tijuana Waterkeeper Works to Improve Some of the Most Contaminated Beaches in the World But They Need Your Help


Tijuana Waterkeeper, a program of Proyecto Fronterizo de Educación Ambiental, has been around for quite some time. What started as beach cleanups has...

5 Trends in Water for 2022


As we look ahead to a new year, we asked some of our team to forecast what trends and issues they think will impact water in 2022. Here’s what they had...

Promoting Life in the Creeks of Ecuador’s Guayllabamba River


By Patricio Chambers, Guayllabamba Waterkeeper The creeks of the Guayllabamba River in Ecuador constitute its “veins” through which small permanent...

Beating Back the Tide of Nurdle Pollution with Charleston Waterkeeper


A pernicious and increasingly common form of plastic pollution comes by way of the innocuously named nurdles, the lentil-sized “pre-production pellets”...

Marc Yaggi quote reading "Waterkeepers have scientific and technical expertise, as well as unique perspectives and knowledge about regional water issues and associated impacts to their communities and ecosystems, that make them an invaluable resource for EPA."

Waterkeeper Alliance Works to Align Local Waterkeepers with Regional EPA Administrators


As the U.S. celebrates the 49th anniversary of the landmark Clean Water Act (CWA) legislation, Waterkeeper Alliance—a global movement that connects and...

Help Keep Dangerous ‘Forever Chemicals’ Out of Our Water


One of the most dangerous and persistent threats to our nation’s waters is the group of emerging contaminants known as PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl...

A gas drilling rig for fracking with a sunset in the background.

Objections Target Biden’s Oil Leasing Plan Amid Climate “Code Red”


Conservation groups filed formal objections today to the Biden administration’s plans to offer 734,000 acres of public lands for oil and gas leasing...

Hydropower dam from above.

300 organizations from 69 countries call on governments to not use climate funding for so-called “sustainable” hydropower schemes


300 organizations from 69 countries today launched a Rivers for Climate Global Declaration calling on governments and leaders attending COP26 to protect...

Motion to Protect Amazon Rivers Approved at the World Conservation Congress in Marseille


By Derecho, Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (DAR). Republished with permission. The Members’ Assembly of the International Union for Conservation of...

We Must Urgently Restore Clean Water Protections


 In 2020, the Trump administration issued an unprecedented new regulation that dramatically eliminated federal Clean Water Act protections for rivers,...

methane flame

Waterkeeper Alliance Responds to Dire IPCC Report on Climate Crisis


The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released earlier today brings a dire warning: climate change is accelerating and aggressive...

A river flows through Big Sky Montana

Wealth Before Health: State Regulators Ignoring Big Sky’s Big Pollution Problem


Wealthy Developers Get Categorical Exclusions; Ignoring Cumulative Impacts Polluting Gallatin River Watershed Originally posted by Upper Missouri Waterkeeper....

Plastic water bottles float in water

Plastic Free July: Thinking beyond litter, landfills, and recycling rates


Plastic Free July is a global movement for cleaner streets, oceans, and communities. Waterkeeper Alliance salutes our partners and all those fighting back...

Lawsuit Filed to Overturn Denial of Endangered Species Protection to Eastern Hellbenders


North America’s Largest Salamanders Are Threatened by River Pollution From New York to Missouri A lawsuit filed today by five conservation groups challenges...