隨著法規(guī)的放松，清潔水保護行業(yè)會枯竭嗎?

隨著法規(guī)的放松，清潔水保護行業(yè)會枯竭嗎?

Many business interests are cheering President Trump's recent rollback of water regulations put in place by the Obama administration. But companies that make money protecting clean water could take a big hit.

特朗普總統(tǒng)最近取消了由奧巴馬政府實施的用水規(guī)定，許多商業(yè)利益團體對此表示歡迎。但那些靠保護清潔水賺錢的公司可能會遭受重創(chuàng)。

The Trump administration is stripping protections for streams that only run after rain and for wetlands that don't have a connection to bigger waterways above ground. Announcing the rule last week at the International Builders' Show in Las Vegas, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said it will "save Americans time and money while accelerating infrastructure projects and economic development."

特朗普政府正在取消對只在雨后流淌的溪流和與地面上更大水道沒有連接的濕地的保護。美國環(huán)保署署長安德魯·惠勒上周在拉斯維加斯舉行的國際建筑商展上宣布了這項規(guī)定，他表示，這將“在加快基礎設施項目和經(jīng)濟發(fā)展的同時，節(jié)省美國人的時間和金錢。”

The EPA says there's no data on exactly how many waterways would be affected, but a leaked presentation by government scientists says more than half of wetlands across the country as well as 18% of streams would not have federal protection.

美國環(huán)境保護署表示，目前還沒有確切的數(shù)據(jù)顯示有多少水道會受到影響，但政府科學家泄露的一份報告稱，全國超過一半的濕地以及18%的溪流將得不到聯(lián)邦保護。

Those rollbacks could mean less work for folks like Adam Davis, the managing partner at Ecosystem Investment Partners.

對于像生態(tài)系統(tǒng)投資伙伴的管理合伙人亞當·戴維斯這樣的人來說，這些(規(guī)定的)放松意味著更少的工作。

"One of the most gratifying things about the job is seeing nature come back to life," Davis says.

戴維斯說:“這項工作最令人欣慰的事情之一就是看到大自然恢復了生機。”

The country has lost more than half of its wetlands. The Clean Water Act says that when developers fill in protected wetlands, they have to offset that damage by creating more or restoring them somewhere else.

這個國家已經(jīng)失去了一半以上的濕地?！肚鍧嵥ā芬?guī)定，當開發(fā)商填滿受保護的濕地時，他們必須通過增加或在其他地方恢復濕地來抵消這種損害。

Davis' company operates "mitigation banks" to help them do that. EIP funds wetland restoration through private investment and then sells credits to developers who impact other, protected waterways.

戴維斯的公司運營著“緩解銀行”來幫助他們做到這一點。EIP通過私人投資為濕地修復提供資金，然后向影響其他受保護水道的開發(fā)商出售信貸。

Mitigation banks sold about $4.8 billion in credits in 2018. and the industry directly employs more people than the coal, steel or logging industries. Those workers include everyone "from heavy equipment operators to landscape planners and architects," Davis says.

“緩解銀行”在2018年出售了約48億美元的信貸，該行業(yè)直接雇傭的員工比煤炭、鋼鐵或伐木行業(yè)更多。戴維斯說，這些工人包括“從重型設備操作員到景觀規(guī)劃師和建筑師”的每一個人。

Before mitigation banks took off, developers often restored their own fragments of wetlands near their sites. But Davis says that by pooling investor money, mitigation banks can take on projects that are huge in scale and geared toward improving entire ecosystems. Plus, he says, they do it faster and cheaper than ever before. About 1.600 mitigation banks across the country have restored more than a million acres of wetlands.

在“緩解銀行”開始運作之前，開發(fā)商經(jīng)常在他們的場地附近修復他們自己的濕地碎片。但戴維斯說，通過匯集投資者的資金，“緩解銀行”可以承擔規(guī)模巨大、旨在改善整個生態(tài)系統(tǒng)的項目。此外，他說，他們比以前做得更快、更便宜。全國大約有1600個“緩解銀行”已經(jīng)恢復了超過100萬英畝的濕地。

"The most exciting thing about this industry is that it fundamentally aligns economics and ecology," Davis says.

戴維斯說:“這個行業(yè)最令人興奮的地方在于，它從根本上把經(jīng)濟和生態(tài)聯(lián)系在了一起。”

But some in the industry worry that the regulatory rollbacks threaten their business. Wendy Weaver — with Montana Aquatic Resources Services, a nonprofit that does wetland mitigation under the Clean Water Act — says the new rule could have huge impacts on her program.

但一些業(yè)內(nèi)人士擔心，監(jiān)管的倒退會威脅到他們的業(yè)務。溫迪·韋弗是蒙大拿水生資源服務機構(gòu)的一名工作人員，該機構(gòu)是根據(jù)《清潔水法》對濕地進行減排的非營利組織。她說，新規(guī)定可能會對她的項目產(chǎn)生巨大影響。

"That might mean we're still around, and it might mean we're not," Weaver says.

“這可能意味著我們(的行業(yè))還存在，也可能意味著會消失，”韋弗說。