Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt now has sole control over key provisions in the Clean Water Act, CNN is reporting
The news network attributed it information to a leaked memo it obtained from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
Pruitt said in the memo he will make all final decisions about the preservations of wetlands, streams and ponds, according to CNN.
Pruitt instructed EPA regional offices to "cede their Clean Water Act determinations" to him, said Kyla Bennett, the New England director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
"With this revised delegation, authority previously delegated to regional administrators to make final determinations of geographic jurisdiction shall be retained by the Administrator," the memo states.
CNN noted the move appears to lessen the role of EPA employees and scientists in determining whether a project has negative environmental impact.
The projects could include new residential housing, coal mining, new transportation, President Donald Trump's border wall or "any other project that discharges. . . fill material into a wetland or waterway," the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility said.
"Now a man in D.C. who knows nothing about local environmental conditions will be making the decisions about wetlands and waterways he's probably never seen," Bennett said.
"This action subjects safeguards for clean water across the U.S. to filtration through one politician's hands."
Pruitt has been under fire recently. The Atlantic reported he granted pay raises to two of his closest aides despite the White House rejecting his plans for the salary hikes.
And The Wall Street Journal reported he paid just $50 a night to rent a condo in Washington owned by the wife of an energy lobbyist.
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