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May 14, 1999
AMSA Supports Bipartisan Superfund Reform Bill
This week AMSA lent support to The Recycle America's Lands Act of 1999 — H.R. 1300 — which many on Capitol Hill feel stands a good chance of reaching the president's desk. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, Chairman of the House Water Resources & Environment Subcommittee, is leading a large, bipartisan group of co-sponsors in championing H.R. 1300. The narrowly targeted bill codifies many of the Superfund policy improvements the administration has made since the early nineties, including EPA's policy on the disposal of municipal solid waste and biosolids, recognized by the agency as harmless. AMSA will work closely with Congress during the bill's mark-up to ensure that it clarifies the classification of publicly owned treatment works under Superfund in order to prevent unwarranted exposure to liability.On May 12 the House Water Resources & Environment Subcommittee heard testimony on H.R. 1300 from EPA Administrator Browner, mayors from across the country, states, environmentalists and associations representing chemical manufacturers, small businesses and realtors. In his opening remarks, Chairman Boehlert emphasized the bipartisan support behind the bill and noted that it represents many years of hard-fought compromise. He pledged to make every effort to move the bill out of committee before the Memorial Day break.
In her testimony before the subcommittee, however, Browner said the administration objects to several “loopholes” and “unintended consequences” in H.R. 1300, which, in the agency's view would spark further litigation and let solid waste haulers “off the hook” for their fair share of responsibility for site contamination. Before EPA would support the bill, Browner said, provisions in the bill regarding groundwater and the definition of “waste” would need substantial revision. In response to Browner's testimony, Boehlert expressed a willingness to work with the administration to come to agreement on portions of the legislation. He characterized EPA's problems with the “details” of the bill as a hopeful sign that Congress and EPA could cooperate in drafting viable Superfund reform legislation that could make “the arduous journey to the president's desk.”
AMSA Calls for Nonpoint Controls in Coastal Act Reauthorization
This week AMSA has called on Congress to include the Coastal Nonpoint Source Program in the reauthorization of the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA). H.R. 1110, The Coastal Enhancement Act of 1999, includes provisions to shift the coastal nonpoint program into the CZMA. The program is making the transition from the state and local planning stages to the implementation phase, and the transition will be best accomplished by including the program under CZMA's authorities. AMSA also urged Congress to support provisions in the bill to increase funding to states to implement approved nonpoint source management programs.Senate Hears EPA Clean Water Action Plan Testimony . . .
In a Senate Environment & Public Works Committee hearing this week, EPA Administrator Carol Browner defended the legality of the administration's Clean Water Action Plan, and clarified the agency's position on nonpoint source pollution authority under the Clean Water Act. Browner said that EPA has adequate authority to address nonpoint source pollution under the act, but the agency would support further “clarification” of its existing authority. However, the chair and ranking democrat on the committee, Sens. John Chafee (R-R.I.) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.), said that more reliable EPA data on nonpoint pollution must precede any changes to the act.