![Vamos Outdoors Project x American Rivers Float the Mighty Skagit River: A Photo Essay](https://hydroreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/2722_019-1024x679-1-1024x675.jpg)
![Vamos Outdoors Project x American Rivers Float the Mighty Skagit River: A Photo Essay](https://hydroreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/2722_019-1024x679-1-1024x675.jpg)
![Victory for Environmental Protection: Clean Water Act Prevails in PG&E Hydropower Projects on Yuba and Bear Rivers](https://hydroreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/BEST-Logo-transparent-899x675.png)
Victory for Environmental Protection: Clean Water Act Prevails in PG&E Hydropower Projects on Yuba and Bear Rivers
Marking the culmination of a multiyear struggle where Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) had sought to evade regulation of hydropower projects under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) shared that on September 5,...Good News for Fish: Clean Water Act Holds for PG&E Hydropower Projects on Yuba and Bear Rivers
The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) is pleased to report that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued an Order on September 5, 2023 that upholds the California State Water Board’s authority to require a “water quality certification” for new hydropower licenses for the Upper Drum-Spaulding, Lower Drum, and Deer Creek hydroelectric projects.
![Victory for Environmental Protection: Clean Water Act Prevails in PG&E Hydropower Projects on Yuba and Bear Rivers](https://hydroreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/BEST-Logo-transparent-899x675.png)
The Possible Impacts of the EPA Redefining “Waters of the United States” on the Yuba Watershed
Enacted in 1972, the Clean Water Act established a nationwide approach to improving the quality of our nation’s lakes, rivers, streams, and other water bodies. One of its features is that it prohibits the discharge of pollutants from a point source into “navigable waters” unless otherwise authorized under the Act. “Navigable waters” are defined in the Act as “the waters of the United States, including the territorial seas.”
![New EPA Rule Greatly Reduces Clean Water Act Protections](https://hydroreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/UFOFCUU5Cb6VCpuX1LfaS-1080x675.jpg)
New EPA Rule Greatly Reduces Clean Water Act Protections
Earlier this week the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a new federal rule that eliminates protection for a majority of our nation’s wetlands and estimated totals of well over a million miles of streams. The rule aligns the law with a recent Supreme Court Case that limited the kinds of wetlands and streams that can be covered by the Clean Water Act, known as Waters of the United States, or WOTUS. American Whitewater joined an amicus brief in that pivotal court case, advocating for the science-based protection of these streams and wetlands, but the Supreme Court ruled against us.