Florida environmentalists are up in arms over the rollback of former President Barack Obama’s expansion of the Clean Water Act. The controversial regulation extended federal jurisdiction to small waterways, but it was on hold pending industry legal challenges. Candidate Donald Trump promised to ease federal regulations, but EarthJustice managing attorney Tania Galloni says Trump promised a lot of things.
“Candidate Trump also promised clean water for everyone, and you can’t have both", said Galloni. "The clean water rule was there to ensure that the waterways throughout the country were clean and repealing such a rule can only lead to more trouble.”
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam is praising the move, which ranchers say would have impacted cattle ponds and drainage ditches.