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Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - AMSA in the News

Conservation groups blast budget Bush's EPA funding cut cited

CHARLES SEABROOK

Funding cuts proposed by President Bush for water protection, toxic waste cleanup and other programs threaten the nation's "environmental security," conservation groups warned Wednesday. "Without a doubt, President Bush has sent to Congress the most anti-environment budget blueprint ever proposed by his administration," said Wesley Warren of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Warren and leaders of other environmental groups reacted Wednesday during a press briefing on Bush's 2006 budget, unveiled this week.

The proposed discretionary budget of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the environmentalists noted, would be cut by 5.6 percent, to $7.57 billion.

The greatest single cuts would be in federal payments to the joint state-federal Clean Water State Revolving Fund that helps underwrite projects to improve water quality, including sewer system repairs in Atlanta.

Within hours of the environmental groups' news conference, the Interior Department, the EPA, the Agriculture Department and the U.S. Forest Service held a counter-presentation, arguing that the Bush administration has increased spending for key environmental needs, such as wetlands and habitat conservation, and particularly for voluntary cooperative programs with farmers, ranchers, commercial interests, Indian tribes, and state and local governments.

Warren, however, said that the budget falls short of addressing "America's environmental security." He said the $369 million cut in the Clean Water State Revolving Fund would leave it with annual federal payments of $730 million, down from $1.98 billion four years ago.

The fund is a loan program that helps communities repair and replace aging sewage treatment plants and sewer systems. It has been a primary source of federal support for water infrastructure projects since its creation in 1987.

Trade groups echoed the concerns. Without an adequate loan fund, "communities will not be able to tackle essential projects to meet federal Clean Water Act mandates and improve the quality of the nation's waters," said Ken Kirk of the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies.

The environmental groups said there were some bright spots in the 2006 budget, including an $18 million for restoration of the Everglades in Florida and a near doubling of funding to restore coastal wetlands in Louisiana. Also, the budget proposes increasing the sum to clean up urban industrial sites, or brownfields, by $46.9 million, to $210 million.