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Storm system to exit US, leaving behind at least 39 dead and vast destruction from tornadoes, wildfires and dust storms; ME farmers, others hurt by USDA freeze on funding grants; SNAP, Medicaid cuts would strain PA emergency food system; Trash 2 Trends: Turning garbage into glamour to fight climate change.

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Secretary of State Rubio pledges more arrests like that of student activist Mahmoud Khalil. Former EPA directors sound the alarm on Lee Zeldin's deregulation plans, and lack of opportunity is pushing rural Gen Zers out of their communities.

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Farmers worry promised federal reimbursements aren't coming while fears mount that the Trump administration's efforts to raise cash means the sale of public lands, and rural America's shortage of doctors has many physicians skipping retirement.

EPA Proposes Clearer Protections for Ohio Streams, Wetlands

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Wednesday, March 26, 2014   

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Environmental Protection Agency is taking what some say is the biggest step forward for clean water in more than a decade. On Tuesday, the agency proposed a rule that would close what have been called loopholes in the Clean Water Act.

Christian Adams, a state associate for Environment Ohio, said it aims to resolve a long-running legal battle over how to apply the Clean Water Act to the nation's streams and wetlands.

"There were a couple of short-sighted, polluter-led Supreme Court challenges that redefined how waterways are considered under the Clean Water Act, because of some ambiguity in the original language of the law," he said. "This rule is closing that ambiguity, so it's clear that the Clean Water Act applies to all streams and waterways."

If it's approved, Adams said, the rule would lead to stricter pollution controls on more than 85,000 miles of waterways that currently are not protected from pollution or development by the Clean Water Act. A 90-day public comment period for the proposal is expected to begin in a few weeks.

Some agriculture, construction, mining and energy organizations have voiced concern that the new rule could increase the number of permits needed for their operations. However, Adams said, it's impossible to be certain that all waterways are safe from pollution if the smaller ones are not.

"The connections between our small streams and wetlands that feed and filter into waterways like the Olentangy to the Ohio (River) to Lake Erie rely upon what's going into those small streams and waterways upstream," Adams said.

By clarifying the Clean Water Act protections, he said, more than 5 million Ohioans who depend on clean sources of drinking water can be assured that it will be safe and healthy.

Information about the new rule is online at www2.epa.gov/uswaters.


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