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November 7, 1997Groundwork Laid for VP Clean Water Initiatives
On October 18, the 25th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act, Vice President Al Gore issued a memo-randum calling for a "comprehensive approach to water quality at all levels of government," and directed U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Dan Glickman and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Carol Browner, in consultation with all other affected agencies, to develop a "comprehensive Action Plan." The Plan is to provide "enhanced protection from public health threats posed by water pollution; more effective control of polluted runoff; and, promotion of water quality protection on a watershed basis" as its three major goals. (See Regulatory Alert 97-24 for additional details.)
Tasked with responding to the memo with an Action Plan within 120-days, USDA, EPA and numerous other federal agencies have begun to organize workgroups. With a February 14 deadline, work is already underway to craft the Action Plan, which is to "encompass all appropriate regulatory, incentive, compliance, enforcement, and budgetary steps." Noting that all elements of the Action Plan require input from state and local agencies, as well as tribal governments, Members of Congress, and the public, AMSA moved quickly to write to Vice President Gore expressing its interest in working with the EPA and other federal agencies and announced the formation of an AMSA Clean Water Task Force, to serve as technical resource to the EPA and other agencies as they develop the Action Plan.
AMSA's October 24 letter to the Vice President has received a prompt and positive response. Yesterday the National Office was briefed on key elements of the Action Plan development process and the schedule under which initiatives will take place. Indicating that "...the 120 day deadline will be met" a key EPA official estimated that approximately 60-65% of the process will relate to substantive issues, with the remainder relating to budget issues (carrying with it a December 1 deadline for it to be successfully integrated with the federal budget process). It currently appears that the primary focus of the Plan will be polluted runoff, with public health issues and watershed management being addressed as they relate to runoff. Additionally, the following elements of the Action Plan development process were identified:
- Cross-agency/department workgroups are focusing efforts on approximately 20 issues/areas;
- Workgroup products are anticipated to be complete by December 1 -- with an outline of the Action Plan itself done by mid-December;
- A joint EPA/USDA web site, focusing on the Action Plan is anticipated to be on-line tomorrow;
- A series of constituent meetings/briefings will begin next week and include a separate meeting with involved associations/organizations, as well as four public constituent meetings (three during the week of November 17, and one the following week). The constituent meetings will be convened by EPA Assistant Administrator Bob Perciasepe and USDA Under Secretary Jim Lyons and will likely be held in Sacramento, California, Washington, DC, Chicago, Illinois, and either Omaha, Nebraska or a southern location.
Early indications are that the process to develop the Action Plan has served as a catalyst across the federal government, and has left high-ranking officials "pumped" to move forward. The Administration, through this process, is looking to AMSA to identify 5-6 actions that the federal government can do differently (focusing on wet weather pollution control) that can be shaped into "concrete commitments" resulting in measurable improvement before the year 2000. Legislative initiatives are not "on the table." AMSA will be an important part of this process and will provide additional details on specific opportunities for member agency participation as soon as they become available.