Keiser Co-Authors Research on Waterways Protected by the Clean Water Act
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The 1972 Clean Water Act protects the “waters of the United States” but does not precisely define which streams and wetlands this phrase covers, leaving it to presidential administrations, regulators and courts to decide. As a result, the exact coverage of Clean Water Act rules is difficult to estimate.
New research co-authored by David Keiser, professor of resource economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, used machine learning to more accurately predict which waterways are protected by the Act. The analysis, conducted by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, California Institute of Technology, MIT and UMass Amherst found that a 2020 Trump administration rule removed Clean Water Act protection for one-fourth of wetlands and one-fifth of streams in the U.S., and also deregulated 30% of watersheds that supply drinking water to household taps.