769 
human impact on the environment for the ben-
efit of public health, to maintain air quality and 
water quality, to sustain the diversity of plants 
and animals, to combat global climate change, 
and to protect the environment. 
(E) Laws and regulations in the United 
States have been created and promulgated to 
minimize and mitigate human impact on the en-
vironment for the benefit of public health, to 
maintain air quality and water quality, to sus-
tain wildlife, and to protect the environment. 
(F) Such laws include the Antiquities Act 
of 1906 (16 U.S.C. 431 et seq.) initiated by 
President Theodore Roosevelt to create the na-
tional park system, the National Environmental 
Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), 
the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.), the 
Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 
1251 et seq.), the Comprehensive Environ-
mental Response, Compensation, and Liability 
Act of 1980 (Public Law 96–510), the Endan-
gered Species Act of 1973 (Public Law 93– 
205), and the National Forest Management Act 
of 1976 (Public Law 94–588). 
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(G) Attempts to repeal or weaken key envi-
ronmental safeguards pose dangers to the pub-
lic health, air quality, water quality, wildlife, 
and the environment. 
(2) FINDINGS
ON
CHANGES
AND
PROPOSED 
CHANGES IN LAW.—The Congress finds that, since 
2001, the following changes and proposed changes 
to existing law or regulations have negatively im-
pacted or will negatively impact the environment and 
public health: 
(A) CLEAN WATER.— 
(i) On May 9, 2002, the Environ-
mental Protection Agency (EPA) and the 
Army Corps of Engineers put forth a final 
rule that reconciled regulations imple-
menting section 404 of the Federal Water 
Pollution Control Act by redefining the 
term ‘‘fill material’’ and amending the def-
inition of the term ‘‘discharge of fill mate-
rial’’, reversing a 25-year-old regulation. 
The new rule fails to restrict the dumping 
of hardrock mining waste, construction de-
bris, and other industrial wastes into riv-
ers, streams, lakes, and wetlands. The rule 
further allows destructive mountaintop re-
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moval coal mining companies to dump 
waste into streams and lakes, polluting the 
surrounding natural habitat and poisoning 
plants and animals that depend on those 
water sources. 
(ii) On February 12, 2003, the Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency published the 
rule ‘‘National Pollutant Discharge Elimi-
nation System Permit Regulation and Ef-
fluent Limitation Guidelines and Stand-
ards for Concentrated Animal Feeding Op-
erations’’, new livestock waste regulations 
that aimed to control factory farm pollu-
tion but which would severely undermine 
existing protections under the Federal 
Water Pollution Control Act. This regula-
tion allows large-scale animal factories to 
foul the Nation’s waters with animal 
waste, allows livestock owners to draft 
their own pollution-management plans and 
avoid ground water monitoring, legalizes 
the discharge of contaminated runoff water 
rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, bacteria, and 
metals, and ensures that large factory 
farms are not held liable for the environ-
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mental damage they cause. In a 2005 Fed-
eral court decision (‘‘Waterkeeper Alliance, 
et al. v. Environmental Protection Agen-
cy’’, 399 F.3d 486 (2nd Cir. 2005)), major 
parts of the rule were upheld, others va-
cated, and still others remanded back to 
the EPA. On November 20, 2008, the En-
vironmental Protection Agency published a 
revised final rule which undermines envi-
ronmental protection provisions by remov-
ing mandatory permitting requirements 
and allowing large animal farms to self- 
certify the absence of pollutant discharge 
activity. 
(iii) On March 19, 2003, the Environ-
mental Protection Agency published a new 
rule regarding the Total Maximum Daily 
Load program of the Federal Water Pollu-
tion Control Act that regulates the max-
imum amount of a particular pollutant 
that can be present in a body of water and 
still meet water quality standards. The new 
rule withdrew the existing regulation put 
forth on July 13, 2000, and halted mo-
mentum in cleaning up polluted waterways 
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throughout the Nation. By abandoning the 
existing rule, the Environmental Protection 
Agency is undermining the effectiveness of 
cleanup plans and is allowing States to 
avoid cleaning polluted waters entirely by 
dropping them from their cleanup lists. 
Waterways play a crucial role in the lives 
of the people of the United States and are 
critical to the livelihood of fish and wildlife. 
The result of dropping the July 2000 rule 
is that the restoration of polluted rivers, 
shorelines, and lakes will be delayed, harm-
ing more fish and wildlife and worsening 
the quality of drinking water. 
(iv) On December 2, 2008, the Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency and the 
Army Corps of Engineers jointly issued a 
guidance document in the form of a legal 
memorandum, titled ‘‘Clean Water Act Ju-
risdiction Following the U.S. Supreme 
Court’s Decision in Rapanos v. United 
States & Carabell v. United States’’. This 
new guidance dictates enforcement actions 
under the Federal Water Pollution Control 
Act and calls for a complicated ‘‘case-by- 
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