Would you swim in the Baltimore Harbor?
How about kayak?
On a recent Saturday morning – a beautiful, sunny, blue-skied morning – just over a dozen clean water advocates took to the Baltimore Harbor on kayaks with LCV and Maryland LCV. They were armed with signage they lifted and displayed at stopping points around the harbor. The signs were designed and hand painted by Mike Caswell, declaring support for clean water, a healthy harbor, protecting wetlands and healthy communities.
In Baltimore, a community built and based around water, the declaration to support clean water is closely intertwined with the community. And in Maryland, the heart of the Chesapeake Bay region, clean water is a way of life for so many of us.
Why were we taking to the water to declare this position?
The current federal administration and their supporters in Congress have been making myriad policy choices that are putting the health of our waterways at risk. And, in the Chesapeake Bay in particular, where a multistate and federal partnership has worked for four decades to make progress on the health of the Bay, we cannot turn back now.
What are some of these rollbacks and cuts that risk the health of our waters?
HR 3898, the PERMIT Act:
- H.R. 3898 is a free pass to dump pollution into the water we rely on for drinking, to destroy bodies of water and wetlands that provide habitat for aquatic life and protect our communities against dangerous flooding and extreme weather.
- Enactment of this bill would undermine the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforcement of Chesapeake Bay pollution limits and harm the partnership among states in the watershed working together to restore the health of this treasured body of water.
- One provision would severely weaken states’ and tribes’ authority to protect their water bodies from dangerous activities such as oil and gas pipeline construction.
- As proposed, H.R. 3898, combined with other announced rollbacks by the EPA, will add harmful pollutants (forever chemicals, mercury, arsenic and others) to our waterways.
- H.R. 3898 is an attack on protections that have saved lives, wetlands, and drinking water for over 50 years.
Fired staff, harmful budget cuts, and ignoring enforcement at the EPA:
- The House of Representatives advanced an appropriations bill in July which included an overall 23% funding cut to the EPA.
- The EPA has eliminated its Office of Research and Development and, earlier this spring, there were reports of plans to fire as many as 1,100 EPA scientists despite the fact that staffing audits have found the need for more staff in order for this agency to fulfill its mission.
Cutting tens of millions of dollars from the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Funds:
- The State Revolving Loan Funds provide support to programs in the states to build local infrastructure to protect and deliver clean drinking water and infrastructure that reduces pollution sources entering local waterways.
- In the 2026 funding bill passed in the House Appropriations committee (H.R.4754 – Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2026) cut the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund by 65 percent in each state and the Clean Water State Revolving Fund by 61 percent.
Rollbacks to protected waters in changes to WOTUS:
- WOTUS, or Waters of the United States, defines what water bodies qualify for protections under the Clean Water Act. The Trump administration is proposing changes to this definition that will leave many wetlands across the country unprotected from pollution and destruction.
Water is precious and access to clean water is a human right.
It is important to LCV and Maryland LCV to champion laws and policies in both our federal and state governments that protect water from pollution and support access to clean water, for drinking, for recreating, for wildlife habitats.
If you would like to join us in our effort for a healthy environment for everyone in Maryland, be sure to sign up for our email and/or text alerts for updates on ways you can influence our federal and state government to enact policies that protect clean water and the environment. And, maybe next time, you can join us out on the water!