Americans expect and deserve clean water. It is essential to our existence. The bipartisan Congress that enacted the Clean Water Act in 1972 to protect our waterways against pollution understood that. The bipartisan majorities that strengthened the act in 1977 and 1987 understood the importance of doing, even more, to protect the nation’s waters from pollution and restore their integrity.

Yet, a new rule from the Trump administration’s EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers, its “Navigable Waters Protection Rule,” drastically reduces the ability of the Clean Water Act to protect waters from pollution and destruction, gutting essential protections that safeguard the drinking water of the American people and the waters they swim and fish in. This is an affront to science, the law, and to the bedrock protections that impact the daily lives of all Americans.

Congress intended for our nation’s waters to be fishable and swimmable by 1983. We are far from reaching that goal, despite many successes made. But this rule only makes that goal harder to achieve. We need more, not less, protection for our waters. Our waters are interconnected, and our largest rivers are only as healthy as the small, headwater streams that feed them.

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We are all downstream users of water flowing from these headwater streams, and failing to protect them imperils the drinking water of over 100 million Americans. As the president of Trout Unlimited said in opposition to this extreme rollback, “You can bet on gravity every time. Whatever is in our headwaters will ultimately end up in our backyards.” This is not rocket science, but it is science. This is why even the administration’s own experts, EPA’s Scientific Advisory Board, warns that the rule conflicts with established science.

The Clean Water Act works by requiring permits that set limits on the pollution put into our streams, rivers, and lakes, and limits the destruction of our wetlands. These permits are the heart of our clean water protections — clean water’s last line of defense. This administration’s rule eliminates the need for permits for much of America’s streams and wetlands, opening them up to indiscriminate pollution and destruction with no accountability or responsibility.

This rule allows toxic chemicals and other pollution to be discharged into a significant percentage of the nation’s streams, all of which will eventually carry that pollution into our rivers and lakes — our drinking water sources —and our coastal waters and oceans.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, nearly 60 percent of all streams in the United States (excluding Alaska) are ephemeral or intermittent (flow less than every day of the year) as is over 80 percent of the streams in the states in the Southwest, stretching from Colorado to California. The Trump rule puts a significant number of these waters and the millions of Americans who rely on them, at grave risk by eliminating Clean Water Act protections. No wonder the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership says the Trump rule “flies in the face of all the hunters and fishermen” and American Rivers calls it a “crippling blow” to clean water protection.

Millions of acres of wetlands that guard our cities and coasts against flooding will be permanently lost to development — even more significant with the effects of climate change and rising sea levels.

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Clean water is not just about health and safety. It is an economic necessity. About 40 million anglers spend $45B annually to fish in U.S. waters; the beverage industry uses more than 12B gallons of water annually to produce products valued at $58B; manufacturing companies use nine trillion gallons of freshwater every year; 31 percent of all water withdrawals in the U.S. are for irrigation, highlighting the extent to which the nation’s farmers depend on clean water. The Clean Water Act protects these essential benefits. It must not be weakened.

The Clean Water Act is one of the most popular and effective environmental laws ever enacted. It has provided tremendous improvements to water quality and public health. Americans overwhelmingly support clean water protections and agree we need more protection for clean water, not less.

That is why American people — all of whom benefit from water that will be polluted or destroyed under this rule — should be outraged by this president’s action. Cutting clean water protection is unacceptable and denies the protection of this priceless resource to future generations. This rule will face a vigorous challenge and should be struck down in the courts because it is out of step with the law, the expectations of the American people, and the science that supports our environmental protection.

Avi Garbow is former general counsel to the EPA and Patagonia’s Environmental Advocate. Ken Kopocis teaches environmental law at American University Washington College of Law and is a former deputy assistant administrator in the Office of Water at the EPA.