Washington, DC-- Today, U.S. House Committee Chairmen Henry Waxman and James Oberstar released a report on Clean Water Act enforcement under the Bush Administration and interference by political appointees.

The report, compiled from some 20,000 pages of internal agency documents, revealed a sharp decline in Clean Water enforcement actions due to Bush Administration guidance following several Supreme Court decisions. The guidance has hampered the ability of field staff of both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers from adequately enforcing the law to protect human health and the environment.

In addition, the report detailed unethical actions taken by political appointees within the Army Corps regarding the Santa Cruz River and the determination of federal jurisdiction for the river and its tributaries.

“I commend Chairmen Waxman and Oberstar and their staffs for the thorough report on Clean Water Act enforcement under the Bush Administration,” stated Rep. Grijalva. “I’m particularly disturbed by the report’s detailed descriptions of recent ethical lapses by political appointees on the Santa Cruz River situation in Arizona.”

This report reveals how political appointees suspended the determination of “navigability” of the Santa Cruz River, without which the River and its tributaries would lose federal jurisdiction and therefore protection under the Clean Water Act.

“Similar to the Julie MacDonald case at the Department of the Interior, political appointees within the Army Corps of Engineers conducted private meetings with developers and others and afterwards attempted to overrule career employees on decisions of great importance,” stated Grijalva. “The Bush Administration has once again revealed its tendency to subvert science and transparent decision-making within federal agencies for the benefit of a few private interests. These decisions have the potential for enormous harm to the health of millions of people all over the arid West.”

Julie MacDonald, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks in the Department of the Interior, was forced to resign from the Department after a scandal erupted that she had used her political influence to overrule staff scientists on decisions regarding endangered species for her own benefit and that of her friends in homebuilding and other industries, who opposed protections for those species.

The Waxman-Oberstar report is available on the following site: http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=2292.