EPA ISSUING COMPREHENSIVE GUIDANCE ON NEW OZONE, PM STANDARDS

At presstime, EPA was poised to issue comprehensive new guidance to states outlining a range of requirements for implementation of the agency's revised air quality standards for ozone and particulate matter. The guidance reflects the agency's current thinking on approaches that will be included in future rulemakings, and includes a broad array of proposed schedules and requirements for attaining the standards, according to a memorandum from John Seitz to EPA regional officials. The Seitz memo is reprinted below. Click here...

Clean Air Report - 08/20/1998

Thu, 1998-08-20 00:00

TOP HOUSE DEMOCRATS RAISE CONCERNS OVER SENATE REG REFORM EFFORT

Top House Democrats last week told the White House that they remain concerned that the regulatory reform bill compromise recently reached between the administration and Senate Governmental Affairs Committee leaders may have serious and unintended consequences for environmental, health and safety protections. Led by House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-MO), the ranking members of several House committees with jurisdiction over health and safety regulations questioned the new deal over S. 981, the regulatory reform bill authored by Sens. Fred Thompson...

EPA, CONGRESS REACH DEAL ON NEBRASKA DRINKING WATER CONCERNS

In an effort to avoid attaching policy "riders" to EPA's fiscal year 1999 spending bill, senior agency officials and Nebraska lawmakers have forged an agreement to address the state's concerns about the cost and health risk associated with implementing a major drinking water regulation to control copper contamination. Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-NE) and Rep. Doug Bereuter (R-NE) attempted last month during the appropriations debate on the House and Senate floor to insert language in the FY99 VA, HUD, & Independent...

STATES AND EPA PUSH CONGRESS FOR MORE FLEXIBLE BEACH LEGISLATION

EPA and states are calling for more flexibility in a House bill that would amend the Clean Water Act (CWA) to establish stronger, nationally consistent recreational water quality criteria and require public notification of beach closures. On Aug. 6, the House Water Resources & the Environment Subcommittee heard testimony from a wide range of interests on H.R. 2094, the Beaches Environmental Assessment, Closure, and Health (BEACH) Act, co-sponsored by Reps. Brian Bilbray (R-CA) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ). The BEACH bill...

STATES AND WATER SUPPLIERS CRITICIZE EPA GROUNDWATER PROPOSAL

Proposed changes to EPA regulations to strengthen protection of underground sources of drinking water are under fire from state regulators and drinking water suppliers for spreading state resources too thinly and threatening groundwater quality. The agency is revising 1995 regulations on the protection of groundwater because "EPA now believes that the 1995 proposal was inadequate to protect underground sources of drinking water," according to the preamble of the rule. The 1995 regulations were inadequate for two reasons, according to an...

FORTHCOMING EPA REPORT WILL SHOW DECREASING DRINKING WATER VIOLATIONS

EPA's Office of Enforcement & Compliance Assurance is poised to issue a report which concludes that fewer water systems are violating national drinking water standards, and therefore fewer consumers are drinking polluted water, according to sources familiar with the closely held report. Violations that do occur primarily involve small water systems, these sources add. The report, which was required to be completed by July 31 under the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996, may be released this week and...

STAKEHOLDERS GRAPPLE WITH AGREEMENT ON DRINKING WATER BENEFITS

A key drinking water stakeholder group charged with advising EPA on assessing benefits of drinking water regulations is struggling to reach consensus on how to monetize benefits that will offset the costs of future Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) rules. The benefits working group, established by the National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC), is helping EPA draft a consensus-based method for identifying and quantifying the benefits of drinking water regulations. NDWAC is a key player in implementing the SDWA Amendments...

CLINTON HAILS NEW DRINKING WATER REPORTS ON CONSUMER CONFIDENCE

President Clinton announced Aug. 11 a controversial EPA rule directing thousands of public water systems to distribute annual reports to their customers despite charges by environmentalists claiming the rule does not ensure that adequate health risk information reaches the public. Sources say the president's announcement may in part be an attempt to repair the damaged credibility of EPA and the nation's water suppliers who were attacked by environmentalists and public health organizations at a recent news conference. The environmentalists charged...

AGENCIES SAY PFIESTERIA EVENT SHOWS NEED FOR CLEAN WATER PLAN FUNDS

Amid warnings that conditions are perfect for further outbreaks of a toxic microbe linked to massive fish kills from Florida to Maryland's Chesapeake Bay, top government officials are pressing Congress to fully fund the Clinton administration's Clean Water Action Plan. On Aug. 6 the White House held a press conference announcing $365,000 in federal aid for North Carolina to respond to an outbreak of pfiesteria that recently killed 200,000 fish in the state's Neuse River. The government also pledged to...

WATER OFFICE WILL HEIGHTEN SCRUTINY OF ORGANIZATIONS' BOOKKEEPING

At the urging of the Senate Appropriations Committee and EPA's Office of Inspector General (IG), the agency's Office of Water has pledged to better police the distribution of agency grants and federal funds to prevent the misuse of the money to support organizations' lobbying activities. On March 31, the IG reported that the National Rural Water Association (NRWA), which represents the regulatory and legislative interests of small drinking water systems, "improperly" used federal money, contracts, and an EPA employee temporarily...

REGION VI ROUNDTABLE FOSTERS INNOVATIONS IN WETLANDS PROTECTION

EPA and a number of federal agencies with an interest in wetlands along the Gulf Coast have established an innovative working group for jointly managing a number of wetlands issues, and sources say it could serve as a model for the establishment of similar workgroups in other parts of the country. The workgroup was formed last year principally to create more interagency cooperation on wetlands management and provide stronger support for local wetlands initiatives. Participants on the workgroup say that...

DEVELOPERS PRESS ARMY CORPS TO ENSURE NO LAPSE IN WETLANDS PERMITS

The housing industry is calling on the Army Corps of Engineers to take steps to ensure that construction projects do not face more regulation or get delayed by a lag time between the expiration of the old permit and the implementation of permits to replace it. The Corps is phasing out nationwide permit (NWP) 26 largely because of environmentalists' long-standing complaints that the permit causes major water quality problems because of its high acreage threshold and cumulative impacts on wetlands...

ESA LAWSUIT COULD SCRAP LANDOWNERS LONG-TERM WATER QUALITY PLANS

If environmentalists win a recently filed lawsuit, industry may lose important long-term agreements from the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) that guarantee consistent sets of endangered species protections such as water quality controls and habitat set-asides with no chance of additional federal requirements. Environmentalists sued FWS on July 29 ( Spirit of the Sage Council v. Babbitt , U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 1:98CV01873) over the Clinton administration's "no surprises" rule. It ensures that once land...

AGENCIES, ENVIRONMENTALISTS SEEK REHEARING OF KEY WETLANDS CASE

The Justice Department and environmentalists are urging a federal appeals court to rehear a wetlands case in which the court ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers does not have the authority to regulate "incidental fallback" from the dredging and excavation of wetlands. This action stems from a June 19 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in the matter of the National Mining Congress v. the United States Army Corps of Engineers et...

EPA LIKELY TO FACTOR AIR DEPOSITION INTO IMPAIRED WATERS PROGRAM

EPA is likely to require in an upcoming proposal that states list waters as impaired regardless of how they are being polluted, according to agency sources who say the move will most importantly force states to account for air deposition during the listing process. An EPA advisory group recently warned the agency against creating such a system, stressing that it could overwhelm state water agencies that lack the financial and technical resources to tackle air deposition issues. A state source...

EPA CONFERENCE WILL INCLUDE KEY WETLANDS, DATA ACCESS DISCUSSIONS

Participants in an upcoming wide-ranging discussion on the future of EPA's water quality program will hear agency presentations on critical issues including subjecting wetlands to higher water quality standards and improving public access to information on water impairments. These are among the topics to be discussed Aug. 24-27 in Philadelphia at "Strengthening the Foundation of the Nation's Water Quality Program," an EPA meeting on water quality standards, water quality criteria, and water quality-based permitting. The debate over water quality criteria...

FARMERS EXPRESS CONCERNS ABOUT NEW EPA WATER CONTROLS ON AGRICULTURE

Key members of the agriculture industry are concerned that an EPA plan to issue new technology based water pollution controls for animal feeding operations (AFOs) exceeds the agency's Clean Water Act (CWA) authority and may threaten the economic viability of small farms. The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), which represents farmers and ranchers in 50 states, raised this and other issues in comments last month on EPA's effluent guidelines plan -- which the agency is required to issue every two...

EFFLUENT GUIDELINES STUDY EXPLORES EPA, INDUSTRY COST DISCREPANCIES

To address congressional concerns about the cost of new EPA rulemakings, the General Accounting Office (GAO) has fleshed out its objectives for studying the economic impact of the agency's recently proposed rule to control water pollution from industrial laundries. The GAO, which undertook the effort at the request of House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bud Shuster ( Water Policy Report , June 10, p17), developed a series of detailed questions for EPA on the rule in light of growing...

EPA MAY STRIP TOXICITY FACTOR FROM WASTEWATER RULE FOR LAUNDRIES

EPA may drop a controversial approach for estimating the toxicity of water pollution from industrial laundries because of concerns from dischargers that the method is scientifically flawed, sources say. An EPA source says that the agency is considering moving away from the toxicity weighting factor, but stresses that a decision will not be made on the issue until an ongoing EPA study of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs), an indicator pollutant for organics and metals, is completed. EPA proposed the toxicity...

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