Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - AMSA in the News
For 1st Bill, Hitting the Beach / Bishop picks an issue close
to home - the
environment
By Elaine S. Povich. WASHINGTON BUREAU
Washington - It doesn't have the catchiest title - the "Raw
Sewage
Overflow Community Right-to- Know Act." But the first bill authored by
Rep. Tim Bishop is a symbol of his environmental commitment - and the
disdain he has for the Bush administration's environmental policies.
And it has little chance of becoming law.
"It's not a sexy subject, but it's an important issue," Bishop said
in an interview last week just hours before he formally dropped the bill
in the special wooden box on the House floor where new bills are
submitted. "It speaks to two issues that were important in my campaign
and important to me personally. One is protecting the environment and
the other is protecting the people's right to know."
The legislation by the Southampton Democrat is aimed at forcing
sewage treatment plants to monitor and quickly report overflows before
beaches get contaminated. Beach contamination has been a problem on Long
Island intermittently for many years, and a region dependent on tourism
can't afford to have its beaches closed, Bishop notes. Municipal
officials need to know about potential problems before they occur, he
says.
Former President Bill Clinton's administration promulgated rules in
December 2000 that were supposed to go into effect to require the
treatment plants to upgrade their overflow monitoring systems and
swiftly notify authorities. But President George W. Bush threw out all
of the Clinton-era pending rules when he took office. Bush's
Environmental Protection Agency has been working on a new set of rules,
but they have not yet taken effect.
Bishop says discharges from sewer systems result in thousands of days
of closed beaches. He also estimated that the cost of illnesses due to
swimming in contaminated water was $28 billion annually. Environmental
groups agree with that figure, but industry organizations are
skeptical.
The odds, and Bishop's lack of seniority, are against the bill ever
being made a law. Of the 3,517 bills introduced in the last Congress,
only 173 were enacted.
"Being a minority representative, he can expect nothing, and nothing
is what he'll get," predicted Stephen Hess, congressional analyst for
the Brookings Institution think tank. "Therefore, it has a certain
symbolic value. It tells you something about where he is coming from."
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), chairman of a House subcommittee that
may have jurisdiction over the bill, was a bit more charitable. "I'd
have to take a look at it. Normally, a problem occurs when you have
storm water and the public is generally notified to stay away from the
beaches," he said.
Environmental groups provided a great deal of support for Bishop in
his campaign, but Bishop says his decision to take on an environmental
issue stems from his personal beliefs, not their support. In fact, he
said, it's the other way around. "They supported me because of my
positions, I'm not taking positions because of their support," he said.
Sarah Meyland of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, a New
York group, said her organization was among those that helped Bishop
write the legislation. She said that while sewage treatment plants are
supposed to report overflows, they sometimes don't, or sometimes delay.
New York State regulations require reporting of overflows to local
authorities "within two hours of becoming aware of the discharge,"
according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
Federal EPA spokesman John Millett said the agency has "received
comments" on the proposed sanitary sewage overflow monitoring and is
"working to balance all the comments we received on how best to reduce
SSOs in the most cost-effective manner."
The EPA estimates it would cost between $93.5 million and $126.5
million annually to implement the new monitoring and reporting
regulations.
Bishop said he doesn't find the EPA's efforts "compelling. This
administration has sat on those regulations for 2 1/2 years. I have more
confidence in a legislative remedy than a regulatory remedy."
The managing director of the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage
Agencies said his group prefers the regulatory approach over the
legislative one.
"Congress needs to recognize that they should not add additional
mandates but watch what the EPA does and fund it," the official, Adam
Krantz, said. He also disputed that sewage overflows adversely affect
public health. "There's very little pathogenic effect from sewer
overflows to water-borne disease or illness," he said. "There's a public
perception that the stuff is icky, but there's not scientific evidence
to back up the ickiness."
Environmental groups say the germs can sicken beach-goers and can
kill those at high-risk such as the elderly and immune-deficient.
Bishop says the problem is so important that, "I am interested in
this taking on the force of law. I clearly also need to demonstrate that
the environmental principles I hold are not just debating points. These
are principles and beliefs that I have that I intend to act upon."