Rivers, lakes, and other water bodies across the country – including those that provide our drinking water – are contaminated with an eclectic cocktail of pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, and nutrients. Genetic mutations thought to exist only in the realm of science fiction are now readily observed in fish and other aquatic species. Overall, the EPA estimates that only 12 percent of the nation’s waters have been surveyed, and of that small percentage more than half can no longer be used for at least one designated use.
A recent article in Inside EPA (subscription required) details plans inside the Environmental Protection Agency to strengthen the protection of water by reviving a much-discussed but ill-fated rule to regulate water pollution from non-point sources.
The Clean Water Act differentiates between point source (PS) pollution, which enters water through a discrete point of discharge, and non-point source (NPS) pollution, which enters water as indiscrete runoff. Point source pollution is regulated through a discharge permit system, but EPA has no authority to regulate non-point source pollution. Pollution from non-point sources, including agriculture and forestry operations, urban runoff, and natural erosion, is a complicated and controversial issue (CPR Member Scholar Robert Adler has also written a CPR Perspective on non-point source pollution, available here). One aspect is clear: while PS pollution has decreased significantly under the Clean Water Act, that progress is negated by a corresponding increase in NPS pollution.
Section 303(d) of the CWA establishes the “total maximum daily load” (TMDL) program, which requires states to identify water bodies that remain polluted after implementing point source controls and to set a numeric TMDL for specified pollutants, such as nitrogen or phosphorous, so that the water body will meet water quality standards. If a state fails to set a TMDL, the EPA can intervene. However, this action may be for naught since the EPA has no authority – and the states have no obligation – to implement the TMDL, relegating the process to an exercise in data collection.
A TMDL is both a planning process for attaining water quality standards and a quantitative assessment of pollution problems, sources, and reductions needed to restore a water body. As a quantitative assessment of pollution sources, a TMDL is a pollution budget that addresses all pollution sources – point sources, non-point sources, and natural sources. Where an effective permit system has reduced point source pollution as much as possible, the idea is that the TMDL implementation program will turn to reducing non-point sources to meet the budget.
The article in Inside EPA gives a brief history of the EPA’s prior attempt to regulate NPS pollution. Under the Clinton Administration, the EPA issued a final rule in July 2000 for the TMDL program that required comprehensive identification of impaired waters, implementation plans based on TMDLs, and new opportunities for public participation. More importantly, the July 2000 rule required states to provide “reasonable assurance” that the TMDL program would be implemented, implicitly requiring states to address and control NPS pollution. Naturally, the potentially affected groups – namely agriculture and forestry operations, which contribute significantly to NPS pollution – vehemently opposed the rule, even though the final rule was already less stringent than proposed. Eventually these groups persuaded the Bush Administration to first delay and then withdraw the rule in 2003.
If, as the article suggests, the EPA does revive the rule and strengthen TMDL program, it would be great news for the nation’s waters. Developing a TMDL is a resource-intensive process with many unknowns, but it is necessary. Polluters that are responsible for the dismal state of the nation’s water should not respond to attempts to control water pollution by crying foul play because of uncertainties in the science. For states facing severe budget deficits, a revived TMDL rule may cause a collective groan across governors’ mansions. But the waters that are so crucial to social, cultural, and economic development should not be a casualty of short-sighted present interests or political paralysis.
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Yee Huang | March 30, 2009
Rivers, lakes, and other water bodies across the country – including those that provide our drinking water – are contaminated with an eclectic cocktail of pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, and nutrients. Genetic mutations thought to exist only in the realm of science fiction are now readily observed in fish and other aquatic species. Overall, the EPA estimates […]
Rena Steinzor | March 27, 2009
Dangerous consumer products just can’t seem to stay out of the news lately. The newest revelations are on drywall imported from China. Time reports the horrifying story of a 67-year-old dance teacher named Danie Beck whose two-story townhouse was lined with Chinese drywall. Beck smelled horrific odors shortly after moving in, and then began experiencing […]
James Goodwin | March 26, 2009
More than 100 groups and individuals have accepted the invitation from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to comment on the new Executive Order on Regulatory Review that the Obama Administration is currently considering. The extended submission deadline is March 31. So far, the comments reflect a strikingly wide dividing line between regulatory opponents, […]
Matthew Freeman | March 25, 2009
Late last week, the EPA sent over to the White House a preliminary “finding” that greenhouse gas emissions are a threat to public health, and therefore subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act. It’s a simple conclusion, not hard to justify in terms of the science or the statute. But it’s momentous, in its […]
Ben Somberg | March 24, 2009
CPR President Rena Steinzor and Member Scholar Wendy Wagner authored an op-ed in Monday’s Austin American-Statesman and Cleveland’s Plain Dealer with recommendations for President Obama’s initiative for “science integrity.” On March 9, the President had instructed John Holdren, the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), to develop a plan to achieve […]
Holly Doremus | March 23, 2009
This item is cross-posted by permission from Legal Planet. Demonstrating once again the importance of presidential elections and appointments, the 9th Circuit has upheld the National Marine Fisheries Service’s policy on considering hatchery fish in listing Pacific salmonids. (Hat tip: ESA blawg.) Hatchery fish can be a boon or a bane to salmon conservation. Because […]
Matt Shudtz | March 20, 2009
In his appearance on Jay Leno’s show last night, President Obama argued (video, transcript) for financial regulations by making a comparison between credit cards, mortgages, and toasters: “When you buy a toaster, if it explodes in your face there’s a law that says your toasters need to be safe. But when you get a credit […]
Rena Steinzor | March 20, 2009
The financial cataclysm gripping the country is often (and rightly) blamed on a lax system of public and private oversight of financial institutions. On the private side, investors trusted huge auditing companies like Arthur Anderson to rate multinational corporations for fiscal soundness. Meanwhile, Arthur Anderson also took handsome fees from the same corporations to conduct […]
Margaret Clune Giblin | March 19, 2009
More than 10,000 oil and gas wells puncture the land within Pennsylvania’s half-million acre Allegheny National Forest (ANF)—more than in all the other national forests combined, according to the non-profit Allegheny Defense Project. Back in the mid-1990s, about 100 new wells were drilled each year; today, it’s about 1,300 per year. The boom is driven […]