USACE Plays Hardball

The US Army Corps of Engineers ("we never saw a dam we didn't like") took offense when one of its staffers disagreed with an overt move to weaken water quality. She describes the situation here:

I am a civilian biologist working for the Army Corps of Engineers. On my personal time, I joined a trip down the Los Angeles River to protest actions by my own agency to undermine the Clean Water Act.

My superiors scoured the Internet for proof and found two photos of me on a blog. Claiming that my "participation undermined [its] authority," the corps has proposed suspending me for 30 days, a punishment one step below termination. More than two months after advocating this penalty, it has yet to make a decision.

In July, a dozen kayakers took a three-day journey down the 52-mile L.A. River; I joined them for 20 miles. The purpose of our regatta was to show that the entire river is "navigable-in-fact" -- a classification that is crucial to preventing the rollback of Clean Water Act protections throughout the watershed -- and to highlight similar threats facing waterways across the nation.

[snip]

The term "navigable-in-fact" comes from 140 years' worth of court rulings. Waterways that have or can generate interstate or foreign commerce through boating (including seasonal, hazardous or solely recreational use) are navigable-in-fact and thus subject to the provisions of the Clean Water Act. So our kayak trip was meant to underscore that the L.A. River -- and all the streams that feed into it -- deserve protection under that law.

Last year, in response to the court ruling, the corps and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency put together a document spelling out new, more restrictive methods for analyzing which waters will continue to be subject to the law. With a big assist from the Bush administration, developers and industry successfully lobbied the agencies to use the new guidebook as an opportunity to push the majority of our nation's streams and wetlands out of reach of the Clean Water Act.

Led by the Bush administration (not for much longer!), USACE and EPA have pushed for laxer interpretations of laws that are VERY popular with citizens but not with those who would rather make money than preserve the environment.*

When the government is the only game in town, we have to trust that it is doing the right thing for us. After so many failures to "do the right thing," we are getting regime change, but it's also due to the bravery (losing your government job!) of people like Heather Wylie. Let's continue this virtuous cycle.

Bottom Line: Cheers to Heather for looking out for us.

* There are so many examples of corrupt government and business interests collaborating to do the WRONG thing. I just read about the corruption-induced deforestation of Borneo. So sad for the locals, the environment, the animals and us.