Current work in wildlife, rivers, public lands, and climate

WildEarth Guardians’ ongoing Clean Water, Wild Forests campaign continues to work on delivering one of the biggest unmet promises of the Clean Water Act: keeping our cleanest waters clean forever. Our Clean Water, Wild Forests campaign seeks to designate the State of New Mexico’s very cleanest waters as Outstanding National Resource Waters (ONRWs). Once an ONRW has been designated, the Clean Water Act requires that no significant degradation be allowed. In order to make these protective designations as meaningful as possible, we need to ensure that the relevant regulations for ONRWs are as strong as possible.

However, the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission (NMWQCC) will consider a revision to the State’s regulation for managing ONRWs. The proposed changes to the anti-degradation policy would allow degradation of water quality in waters designated as ONRWs in ways that are inappropriate. In addition, industry interests and the Bush administration are mounting an effort to weaken the rules even further.

The State’s changes create a loophole that could allow the Forest Service to permit years of degradation to ONRWs. The proposed changes by industry would allow activities in ONRWs that are not restorative purposes and could render this special protection meaningless.