When clean water is gone, human misery follows.

According to President Trump, federal water protections are among the “worst” of regulations. For businesses like oil companies and plants, these rules outline a way of doing operations that have been seen as a headache by number crunchers, but as necessary by environmentalists and those who care about accountability.

The White House announced plans to propose a rollback of these regulations, withdrawing many miles of waterways from federal jurisdiction and, therefore, safety. This would scale back Obama era interpretations as well as the Clean Water Act itself.

President of the American Rivers environmental nonprofit, Bob Irvin, said in response, “Americans all over the country are concerned about the safety of their drinking water — this is not the time to be rolling back protections.” He is, of course, referencing the Flint, MI crisis, as well as concerns across many other communities, including (but not limited to) New Orleans.

Supporters of Trump’s plans say that not only will it not harm drinking water, but will make laws “less confusing” for landowners who have to work on or by waterways. We here in Southeast Louisiana know all too well of the relationship between man and water, having suffered many boil advisories and oil spills. Such plans as proposed by this White House would make these events more difficult to prevent.

We will stay with this story as it progresses.



Bill Arceneaux is the lead content writer for Big Easy Magazine. In addition to this, he has been an independent writer and film critic in the New Orleans area since 2011, working with outlets like Film Threat, DIG Baton Rouge, Crosstown Conversations, and Occupy. He is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and is Rotten Tomatoes approved. Be sure to check out his film reviews and other articles here.