2024/4/17
STREAMS IN DANGER FOLLOWING 2023 SUPREME COURT DECISION
A call to action for clean water
A Supreme Court decision that stripped protections from America's wetlands will have reverberating impacts on rivers that supply drinking water all over the U.S., according to a new report.
The rivers of New Mexico are among the waterways that will be affected most by the May 2023 Supreme Court decision in Sackett v. EPA, which rolled back decades of federal safeguards under the Clean Water Act for about half of the nation's wetlands and up to four million miles of streams that supply drinking water for up to four million people, according to the report, titled "America's Most Endangered Rivers of 2024.".
"The combination of climate change stressing our rivers and the Supreme Court deciding to stop the protections for half of our wetlands -- that creates a combination that profoundly threatens our rivers," said Tom Kiernan, president and CEO of environmental nonprofit American Rivers.
Full Report
These are America's Most Endangered Rivers of 2024, according to the report:
- Rivers of New Mexico: Threatened by loss of federal clean water protections.
- Big Sunflower and Yazoo Rivers in Mississippi: Yazoo Pumps project threatens wetlands.
- Duck River in Tennessee: Excessive water use threatens water levels.
- Santa Cruz River in Arizona, Mexico: Water scarcity and climate change threaten water levels.
- Little Pee Dee River in North Carolina, South Carolina: Harmful development and highway construction are negatively impacting the river.
- Farmington River in Connecticut, Massachusetts: Hydroelectric power dam creating increasing algal blooms.
- Trinity River in California: Outdated water management impacting the river.
- Kobuk River in Alaska: Road construction, mining impacting the river.
- Tijuana River in California, Mexico: Pollution affecting water supplies.
- Blackwater River in West Virginia: Highway development impacting river.
