Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - AMSA in the News
Bush finds some support for revising nonpoint source rule
Air, Water & Climate
Greenwire
07/18/2001
As environmental groups attack U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman for
deciding to revise a Clinton administration rule requiring the cleanup of
thousands of lakes, rivers and streams, the Bush administration is finding
support among some state regulators, governors, farmers and members of Congress
who agree that the new regulations are unworkable and too costly.
Under the rule, state environmental agencies would have to come up with plans to
stem nonpoint sources of pollution, such as runoff from farms and urban areas,
which are contributing to the pollution of about 20,000 bodies of water. To the
chagrin of environmentalists and municipal treatment plants, which are charged
with ensuring water quality but have little control over runoff, the EPA asked
the District of Columbia Circuit Court on Monday to delay for 18 months a
lawsuit challenging the new rules to allow the agency time to revise them. "How
can we just turn a blind eye to the largest remaining source of water
pollution?" asks Alexandra Dunn, general counsel for the Association of
Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies.
But opposition to the rule is strong, particularly among farmers and the state
regulators charged with implementing it. Critics were bolstered by a National
Academy of Sciences warning that the budget requirements of the rule "are
staggering" (John J. Fialka, Wall Street Journal [subscription required], July
18).
"No one seemed to be happy," said EPA spokeswoman Tina Kreisher. "This is the
pickle we're in" (Sandy Bauers, Philadelphia Inquirer, July 18). -- AGR