For Immediate Release:
January 13, 2026
Contact:
Ashley Castaneda, ashley@restorethedelta.org
Stockton, Calif. – Restore the Delta condemns the Trump Administration’s actions to rollback sections of the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act, calling these changes a direct assault on protections for vulnerable communities, decreasing oversight and regulation of pollutant discharges into our air and waterways. The proposed rules fundamentally weaken Section 401 of the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act standards for particulate pollution.
Section 401 of the Clean Water Act has historically allowed tribes and states to review and potentially veto federal permits for energy projects that could discharge pollutants into waterways. However, the proposed rollbacks would essentially remove the legal tools that environmental justice communities and advocates have used to protect culturally sensitive areas and communities already burdened by high pollution levels.
Simultaneously, the EPA’s rulemaking under the Clean Air Act removes the requirement to consider the economic cost of harm to human health from particulate matter and ozone, two pollutants known to have adverse effects on human health. Instead, the EPA’s approach focuses narrowly on the economic costs to industry, dismissing public health impacts as too “uncertain” to quantify.
“These rollbacks silence the voices of the very communities most affected by pollution”, said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director at Restore the Delta. “In places like Stockton and countless tribal communities across the country, residents already face elevated pollution levels. Stripping away these protections removes one of the last lines of defense against projects that threaten our health, water, and ways of life.”
The federal government’s actions pave the way for environmentally devastating projects, including large scale data centers and AI-related infrastructure that can permanently remove up to 80 percent of drawn water from local systems, as outlined in an upcoming report from Restore the Delta. Streamlining permitting for such projects without meaningful oversight risks severe and irreversible impacts to waterways, ecosystems, and surrounding communities.
Taken together, these regulatory changes remove critical protections against pollution, further concentrate environmental harm in communities of color and low-income neighborhoods, and strip away legal avenues to challenge projects that threaten clean air and water.
Restore the Delta urges policymakers, community leaders, and the public to oppose these rollbacks and defend the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act as essential safeguards for public and environmental health.
###