Critics of the Navigable Water Protection Rule, which replaced the Waters of the U.S. Rule, contend that because many waterways will now lose federal protection, including seasonal streams and rivers, waters that cross state boundaries and various wetlands, some states will bear a larger share of problems that might arise, such as pollutants being dumped in the waterways, contamination of drinking water and filling in wetlands for development, due to not having adequate local protections and resources.

 

As reported in The Revelator, an online news source produced by the Center for Biological Diversity, those states include two of the six that share Chesapeake Bay: Delaware and West Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia. Also listed as vulnerable are the western states of Colorado, Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico, and states across the South.