隨著法規(guī)的放松，清潔水保護(hù)行業(yè)會(huì)枯竭嗎?

隨著法規(guī)的放松，清潔水保護(hù)行業(yè)會(huì)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(shí)施的用水規(guī)定，許多商業(yè)利益團(tuán)體對(duì)此表示歡迎。但那些靠保護(hù)清潔水賺錢的公司可能會(huì)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(duì)只在雨后流淌的溪流和與地面上更大水道沒(méi)有連接的濕地的保護(hù)。美國(guó)環(huán)保署署長(zhǎng)安德魯·惠勒上周在拉斯維加斯舉行的國(guó)際建筑商展上宣布了這項(xiàng)規(guī)定，他表示，這將“在加快基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施項(xiàng)目和經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展的同時(shí)，節(jié)省美國(guó)人的時(shí)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(guó)環(huán)境保護(hù)署表示，目前還沒(méi)有確切的數(shù)據(jù)顯示有多少水道會(huì)受到影響，但政府科學(xué)家泄露的一份報(bào)告稱，全國(guó)超過(guò)一半的濕地以及18%的溪流將得不到聯(lián)邦保護(hù)。

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

對(duì)于像生態(tài)系統(tǒng)投資伙伴的管理合伙人亞當(dāng)·戴維斯這樣的人來(lái)說(shuō)，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(shuō):“這項(xiàng)工作最令人欣慰的事情之一就是看到大自然恢復(fù)了生機(jī)。”

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(gè)國(guó)家已經(jīng)失去了一半以上的濕地?！肚鍧嵥ā芬?guī)定，當(dāng)開(kāi)發(fā)商填滿受保護(hù)的濕地時(shí)，他們必須通過(guò)增加或在其他地方恢復(fù)濕地來(lái)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(yùn)營(yíng)著“緩解銀行”來(lái)幫助他們做到這一點(diǎn)。EIP通過(guò)私人投資為濕地修復(fù)提供資金，然后向影響其他受保護(hù)水道的開(kāi)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(shuō)，這些工人包括“從重型設(shè)備操作員到景觀規(guī)劃師和建筑師”的每一個(gè)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(kāi)始運(yùn)作之前，開(kāi)發(fā)商經(jīng)常在他們的場(chǎng)地附近修復(fù)他們自己的濕地碎片。但戴維斯說(shuō)，通過(guò)匯集投資者的資金，“緩解銀行”可以承擔(dān)規(guī)模巨大、旨在改善整個(gè)生態(tài)系統(tǒng)的項(xiàng)目。此外，他說(shuō)，他們比以前做得更快、更便宜。全國(guó)大約有1600個(gè)“緩解銀行”已經(jīng)恢復(fù)了超過(guò)100萬(wàn)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(shuō):“這個(gè)行業(yè)最令人興奮的地方在于，它從根本上把經(jīng)濟(jì)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(dān)心，監(jiān)管的倒退會(huì)威脅到他們的業(yè)務(wù)。溫迪·韋弗是蒙大拿水生資源服務(wù)機(jī)構(gòu)的一名工作人員，該機(jī)構(gòu)是根據(jù)《清潔水法》對(duì)濕地進(jìn)行減排的非營(yíng)利組織。她說(shuō)，新規(guī)定可能會(huì)對(duì)她的項(xiàng)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(huì)消失，”韋弗說(shuō)。