Member Pipeline - Regulatory - Alert (RA 00-10)
To: Members & Affiliates From: National Office Date: May 10, 2000 Subject: USDA-EPA Joint Statement on Agricultural and Silvicultural Issues in Proposed TMDL Rule Reference: RA 00-10 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published proposed revisions to the total maximum daily load (TMDL) and National Permitting Discharge Elimination System regulations in the Federal Register on August 23, 1999. A month later, Department of Agriculture (USDA) Under Secretary Jim Lyons publicly criticized the rule in a letter to EPA Administrator Carol Browner. In response to those concerns, USDA and EPA agreed to form an interagency workgroup to review the areas of disagreement between the two agencies. According to EPA, “...this group reached agreement on the issues of interest to USDA and EPA has agreed to reflect these agreements in its final TMDL rule.”
The Joint Statement of the USDA and the EPA Addressing Agricultural and Silvicultural Issues Within EPA Revisions to TMDL and NPDES Rules was published on May 1, 2000. Since the two agencies reached agreement on USDA's concerns, EPA is making the final revisions to the proposed rules and, within a matter of days, will send the revised regulations to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for final review and approval.
Among other things, the attached Joint Statement states that “EPA and USDA agree that voluntary and incentive-based approaches are the best way to address nonpoint source pollution.” The agreement goes on to affirm that States “...are not required to allocate pollution reductions to specific categories (e.g. agriculture) in proportion to pollution contributions.” In another unsettling decision, the USDA and EPA have concluded that forestry operations do not need NPDES permits for at least five years — and maybe never — if States develop adequate forestry BMP programs.
AMSA staff, following a meeting with policymakers at EPA, have responded to EPA's compromises to agricultural and silvicultural nonpoint sources in a letter to EPA Administrator Browner (attached). AMSA's letter asks Browner to verify that the Joint Statement does not, in fact, erode the agency's long established position concerning the need and appropriateness of State regulatory controls for nonpoint sources in water quality impaired watersheds. AMSA's response details the difficulties that POTWs will face if the language in the Joint Statement is codified in the rule, in subsequent guidance, or in future policy documents.
The USDA-EPA document concludes by stating that “the final TMDL regulations will provide an improved framework for restoring our polluted waters.” AMSA's letter questions how EPA will be able to accomplish this task if the agency fails to be clear and consistent in addressing nonpoint sources in the TMDL process.
The EPA-USDA agreement is attachment below.
For more information, contact AMSA's Lee Garrigan at lgarrigan@amsa-cleanwater.org or by phone at (202) 833-4655.
Attachments:
- May 5, 2000 letter to U.S. EPA Administrator Carol Browner (PDF ~389 KB)
- Joint Statement of the Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency Addressing Agricultural and Silvicultural Issues Within EPA Revisions to TMDL and NPDES Rules, May 1, 2000 (PDF ~208 KB)
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