Lisa Finley DeVille, Mandaree

The EPA’s decision to narrow the scope of the Clean Water Act is troubling, especially for communities like ours who live with the consequences of weakened water protections from oil and gas development. Wetlands are vital to our survival. They filter pollution before it reaches our rivers, reduce flooding, and sustain entire ecosystems and habitat for thousands of aquatic species and cultural plant life that our people have depended on for generations. Removing federal protections ignores the science and the reality on the ground, where every acre of wetland lost creates real harm.

A lot of this comes down to the long debate over what counts as “waters of the United States,” or WOTUS. Different administrations have shifted the definition back and forth and sometimes protecting small streams and headwaters, sometimes not. After a Supreme Court ruling narrowed it even further, we’re now left with a system that leaves far too many wetlands unprotected and at risk.

For Tribal Nations, decisions like this hit even harder. Many live downstream from major industrial activity, and we’ve seen firsthand what happens when companies are allowed to pollute with minimal oversight. Weakening safeguards means one thing: more contamination in our water and more burden on our communities to monitor, clean up, and live with the consequences. It is unacceptable that the agency tasked with protecting environmental health is instead opening the door to more risk.

Our communities deserve stronger protections, not weaker ones. We have fought for decades to ensure our children and grandchildren have clean water, and this rollback takes us in the opposite direction. We need federal partners who respect our lands, our knowledge, and our sovereignty; not policies that disregard the wellbeing of Native families and rural communities across the country.