Bush Administration Continues Attack On Clean Water Rules

The Ocean Conservancy
Tuesday, 7 August 2001

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, environmental groups denounced a move that the Bush Administration is preparing to make in response to industry demands to dismantle Clean Water Act rules. The Administration will publish a proposal on Thursday to delay new rules governing the Clean Water Act program to clean up the nation's most polluted waters - more than 300,000 miles of river and shoreline and five million acres of lakes. The proposal rejects a July 24 request to EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman from 13 national environmental organizations that EPA not reopen and weaken rules to clean up more than 20,000 polluted bodies of water.

"The Bush Administration has just rung the death knell for cleanup of the nation's polluted waters," said Nina Bell, Executive Director of the Portland, OR based Northwest Environmental Advocates (NWEA). "This is in direct response to the demands of the polluters and of states that don't want to regulate polluters. The Administration has turned its back on the American public," she added.

The Clinton-era rules implemented a 1972 Clean Water Act requirement to develop Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) clean up plans for such waters. A TMDL determines the amount of pollution safe for people, fish, and wildlife for each body of water and divides the responsibility for reducing pollution between different sources. The rules were based on over 150 recommendations issued by a federal advisory committee made up of representatives of all major interest groups. Industry groups -- including the American Farm Bureau and American Forest & Paper Association -- challenged EPA's new rules in court after they were made final in July 2001.

"Under the Clinton EPA, industry groups participated in the development of the new clean up rules, even if they went to court when they were unhappy. Now, under Bush, they just go straight to the Administration to get what they want," said Rick Parrish, Senior Attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC). "Today's action deals a severe setback for Americans concerned about the effects of environmental pollution on their health. Under the Bush plan Americans can expect little if any reduction in the raw sewage, animal and industrial wastes, and poisoned runoff that now contaminate public waters," he added.

Tim Eichenberg, Program Counsel for The Ocean Conservancy said, "It has been nearly 30 years since Congress passed the Clean Water Act, and we still do not have an effective program to clean up our most polluted waters. Additional delays mean more closed beaches and shellfish beds, more contaminated drinking water and public health threats, and more problems for those who depend upon clean water for their livelihoods and recreation. We need progress, not rollbacks."

"The Bush Administration is working to ensure that this clean up program produces lots of paperwork but little real pollution clean up efforts. The big losers are people, fish, and wildlife in the 40 percent of the nation's waters that require clean up," according to Bell.

In mid-July, EPA notified a federal court that it planned a series of actions that would render moot lawsuits filed by industry groups against the TMDL rules. The rules would have become effective on October 31, 2001. EPA's new proposal would postpone the effective date of the Clinton TMDL rule by 18 months and reopen the rule for revisions. NWEA, SELC, and The Ocean Conservancy have been involved in the federal advisory committee, rule development process, and litigation concerning the new TMDL rule.

For more information, or to contact The Ocean Conservancy, see their website at: www.oceanconservancy.org