The PERMIT Act Passed the House: What It Means for the Yuba River Watershed

UPDATE: On December 11, 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the PERMIT Act by a narrow vote of 221-205. The bill now moves to the Senate, where it faces an uncertain future and where public pressure could make a big difference.   

Congress has taken a dangerous step toward severely weakening Clean Water Act protections for rivers, streams, and wetlands across the country, including the Yuba River watershed. The PERMIT Act (H.R. 3898) strips federal protection from many waters, including seasonal streams, wetlands that flow only after rain, groundwater, converted cropland, and waste treatment systems. Despite its misleading and benign-sounding name — the “Promoting Efficient Review for Modern Infrastructure Today Act” — environmental and clean water advocates such as SYRCL have rightly dubbed it the “Permission to Pollute” Act. Here’s what the bill does: 

The PERMIT Act Undercuts California’s Clean Water Laws 

California’s clean water protections are stronger than federal minimums, and the PERMIT Act would directly block our state from enforcing them. For decades, California has used the federal Clean Water Act as a baseline, applying more protective, science-based standards that are tailored to its rivers, fisheries, drinking water supplies, and downstream communities. 

A cornerstone of that authority is Section 401 of the Clean Water Act, which allows California and Tribal governments to review federally permitted projects and requires conditions necessary to protect water quality and beneficial uses. This authority has been essential in California, where upstream activities have immediate and lasting impacts on downstream rivers, groundwater, and coastal waters. The PERMIT Act weakens Section 401, limiting California’s ability to stop or condition projects that violate state clean water laws. 

The bill also drastically restricts the EPA’s authority to stop highly damaging projects from destroying fisheries and wetlands. During the entire history of the Clean Water Act, the EPA has only used this authority 14 times as a last resort to protect aquatic resources (with most actions taken by Republican administrations). 

What Would Lose Protection 

In the Sierra Nevada, countless headwater streams, fed by Sierra snowmelt and rain, form the Yuba River. The bill would remove Clean Water Act protections from many of these ephemeral creeks and streams. Without protection, they could be filled, polluted, or destroyed without consequence, and that environmental damage would flow downstream, damaging ecosystems, possibly polluting the water we swim in and drink. 

It would also allow officials at the EPA or the Army Corps of Engineers to exclude entire categories of wetlands and streams from Clean Water Act protection, potentially compromising the quality of downstream drinking water supplies and wildlife habitat. All of this without public input. 

As well, many Sierra Nevada meadows (the same meadows that SYRCL works to restore because they store water, filter sediments, sequester carbon, and provide critical wildlife habitat) could be excluded from Clean Water Act jurisdiction. 

The bill also explicitly excludes groundwater from protection, even though groundwater and surface water are hydrologically connected. Contaminating groundwater contaminates the streams and rivers it feeds. 

Together, these losses could unravel the natural systems that keep the Yuba cold, clean, and resilient. 

Alarming Provisions Hidden in the Bill 

 The PERMIT Act doesn’t just weaken the Clean Water Act — it rewrites it for polluters. 

The bill allows agencies to remove waterways from protection without public input, provides immunity for polluters, and allows toxic contaminants like PFAS (aka “Forever Chemicals”) and mercury to enter waterways. It weakens the longstanding authority of states and Tribes to protect local waters under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act from potential impacts related to federally issued permits and licenses. 

The PERMIT ACT prioritizes cost over science by requiring the EPA to base pollution control and remediation technology recommendations on how much it would cost polluters to implement the technology rather than on science-based water quality standards. 

Why This Threatens the Yuba  

For the Yuba River, this is a direct threat to the headwater streams, seasonal wetlands, and tributary systems that feed the rivers we have spent decades protecting.  

The South, Middle, and North Yuba Rivers do not begin as fully formed rivers. They start as snowmelt, with seeps, springs, and countless small tributary streams in the high Sierra. Water moves through meadows, percolates into groundwater, flows through seasonal channels, and gradually accumulates into the rivers we know and love. 

Excluding these headwater streams and wetlands from Clean Water Act protection means allowing pollution and destruction at the very sources that create and sustain the Yuba. And, much like all the cobble and tailings from hydraulic mining during the Goldrush, that pollution flows downhill.  

When headwaters lose protection, the impacts are moved downstream.  Here is how this could directly harm our rivers. 

We could lose water storage. Sierra meadows store snowmelt, reduce flooding, and sustain summer flows. Without protection, these natural buffers can be drained or developed — increasing flood risk and reducing water when we need it most. 

Our water quality could be degraded. Headwater streams and wetlands act as natural filters, removing sediments and pollutants before they reach larger waterways. Allowing these smaller features to be polluted or destroyed means more contamination flowing into the Yuba and into the drinking water sources that serve tens of thousands of residents downstream. Additionally, excess sediment fills reservoirs and damages water infrastructure, increasing flood risk and threatening power generation. 

Salmon would lose habitat. Salmon and steelhead depend on cold, clean water and connected tributary systems for spawning and rearing. SYRCL invests significant resources in restoring salmon habitat precisely because these threatened species need intact watershed systems. Destroying headwater streams and seasonal wetlands fragments habitat and makes recovery even more difficult. 

Communities face increased flood risk. Intact headwater systems and wetlands absorb and slow stormwater, reducing peak flood flows. Destroying these natural buffers increases the chance of flooding downstream, threatening communities and infrastructure. 

SYRCL and its partners have invested years of work and millions of dollars restoring meadows, restoring salmon rearing habitat, and protecting sensitive habitats. The PERMIT Act would undermine these efforts by allowing degradation of the very features we are working to restore. 

What You Can Do Right Now 

The PERMIT Act has passed the House. It now moves to the Senate, where your voice can make the difference. Here is how you can help protect the Yuba River watershed: 

Contact your U.S. Senators immediately. Tell them to oppose H.R. 3898, the PERMIT Act. Explain that you support the Yuba River and the Clean Water Act protections that keep our headwater streams, wetlands, and drinking water sources safe from pollution and destruction. 

Find your Senators’ contact information 

Stay informed. Follow the South Yuba River Citizens League on Facebook or Instagram and subscribe to our newsletter for updates on when this bill moves in the Senate and when action is needed. 

Support science-based advocacy. SYRCL monitors legislation that affects the Yuba River watershed and mobilizes community action when threats emerge. Your membership and donations fund this critical advocacy work. 

The Yuba River has survived threats before because people refused to stay silent. The PERMIT Act is the latest challenge. Once again, we need the community that saved this river to defend it. 

Contact your U.S. Senators now and tell them to oppose the PERMIT Act. 

Become a SYRCL member and support the advocacy work that protects the Yuba River watershed from threats like this. 

People can save a river. But only if we speak up.