Clean Water Act & WOTUS

 

Wheeler Mum On Trump's San Francisco Enforcement Threat. According to E&E News, “EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is saying nothing about what his boss says is a pending enforcement action against San Francisco, alleging that the city’s homeless population is polluting water. President Trump mentioned the possible EPA enforcement effort to reporters yesterday on Air Force One, returning from a California trip that included fundraisers in multiple cities and a visit to a border wall construction site. ‘There’s tremendous pollution being put into the ocean because they’re going through what’s called the storm sewer that’s for rainwater,’ Trump said of both San Francisco and Los Angeles. ‘And we have tremendous things that we don’t have to discuss pouring into the ocean. You know there are needles; there are other things. ‘It’s a terrible situation — that’s in Los Angeles and in San Francisco,’ he continued. ‘And we’re going to be giving San Francisco, they’re in total violation, we’re going to be giving them a notice very soon.’ Asked to explain further, Trump said EPA would likely act within the next week. ‘EPA is going to be putting out a notice. They’re in serious violation,’ Trump said, seemingly referring to San Francisco.” [E&E News, 9/19/19 (=)]

 

EPA's Wheeler: No 'Official Steps Yet' On Trump's San Francisco Warning. According to Politico, “EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said today EPA has ‘not taken any official steps yet’ to warn San Francisco that it was breaking environmental rules related to pollution from its homeless population, and he declined to comment on President Donald Trump’s comments that the agency would soon issue a violation notice to the city. Testifying before the House Science Committee Thursday, Wheeler said he couldn’t comment on any ‘pending or potential enforcement action.’ However, Wheeler appeared surprised by the tight deadline that the president set for the move when he spoke with reporters aboard Air Force One late Wednesday when a Democratic lawmaker pressed him for details. ‘I didn’t see where he said it was happening this week,’ he told Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) when pressed on what evidence the agency has of pollution problems in the city. Trump told reporters on Air Force One Wednesday that ‘EPA is going to be putting out a notice. And, you know, they’re in serious violation.’ Wheeler told reporters after the hearing that EPA is looking into the matter under its major water authorities. ‘We have regulatory [authority] under both the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act for disposal of waste going into the sewer systems, combined sewer overflow. There’s a number of permits that are involved. We are taking a look at whether or not permits have been in violation,’ he said. But San Francisco officials said overnight that there is nothing to Trump’s strange statement since virtually all of the city’s water runoff goes through treatment before it is released into the bay. ‘To be clear, San Francisco has a combined sewer system, one of the best and most effective in the country, that ensures that all debris that flow into storm drains are filtered out at the city’s wastewater treatment plants,’ San Francisco Mayor London Breed said in a statement. ‘No debris flow out into the bay or the ocean.’” [Politico, 9/19/19 (=)]

 

Editorial: WOTUS Has Done More For Trial Lawyers Than Clean Water. According to Capital Press, “While farm and private property interests cheered, environmental groups last week bemoaned the Trump administration finalizing the repeal of the controversial ‘Waters of the United States,’ or WOTUS, rule. We see little to cheer or jeer at this point, as the repeal is hardly the final chapter in a dispute that has stretched on for nearly 10 years. At issue is which bodies of water can be regulated by the federal government under the Clean Water Act. The act gives the feds regulatory jurisdiction over navigable waters of the United States — the stuff of lawsuits. Conflicting Supreme Court interpretations over the act’s meaning and intent rendered the precedents unworkable, and new rules were necessary to make jurisdiction clear. The Obama administration started the process to make new rules. All the while it assured wary farmers and other property owners that it would not significantly expand the government’s authority. In the waning days of the administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released the final WOTUS rule, which greatly expanded the definition of the ‘waters of the United States’ and to extend jurisdiction to waters with a ‘significant nexus’ to them. … So far, WOTUS has done more for the trial bar than it has done for clean water.” [Capital Press, 9/20/19 (-)]

 

Drinking Water

 

Study Explores Cumulative Risks Of Drinking Water Toxins. According to E&E News, “The first cumulative risk assessment study of carcinogenic chemicals in drinking water found that mixtures of toxins could result in more than 100,000 cancer cases. ‘Thus, decreasing the levels of chemical contaminants in drinking water represents an important opportunity for protecting public health,’ according to the paper. Heliyon, an open-access journal from Elsevier, published the peer-reviewed study conducted by researchers from the Environmental Working Group. The researchers used a national dataset of chemicals found in drinking water, including California’s cumulative cancer risk assessment of water contaminants that mirrors EPA’s National Air Toxics Assessment. EPA’s assessment evaluates all toxins found in air, rather than individually, which is currently done for drinking water. Sydney Evans, lead author of the paper and a science analyst at EWG, said combinations of chemicals that increased cancer risks include arsenic, disinfection byproducts and uranium. She said evaluating all possible chemicals together is an important step in determining the risks of cancer. ‘A lot of time, the water contaminants are assessed one by one, but we’re exposed to a lot of contaminants at once, usually in mixtures,’ she said, adding, ‘We have to consider them in mixtures and consider that risk in mixtures.’” [E&E News, 9/19/19 (=)]

 

Misc. Waterways

 

Committee Approves Chesapeake Bay, Great Lakes Bills. According to E&E News, “The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee this morning passed a number of bills aimed at increasing funding for the nation’s estuaries, including the Chesapeake Bay and Great Lakes. Committee lawmakers approved all the bills by voice vote after members on both sides of the aisle expressed their support. Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) said H.R. 4031, from Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio), would help address nutrient pollution and harmful algal blooms in the Great Lakes by increasing authorized funding to EPA’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to $375 million for fiscal 2022 and then by $25 million annually through fiscal 2026. ‘This program has been making great strides, and we have seen the impact in the lakes, but there is still much work to be done,’ he said. Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.), who chairs the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, agreed, noting the importance of the Great Lakes as a freshwater resource where harmful algal blooms have shut down drinking water systems in Ohio in recent years. ‘As a representative from a state where the availability of water is always an issue, I recognize why Great Lakes members are so devotedly protective of this water supply,’ she said. Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-Ohio) used the markup as an opportunity to ‘go on record saying that this program has been very beneficial.’ He said the waterways provide ‘huge economic benefits to that region and to our country; you really can’t measure that.’ Gibbs said, ‘We just need to make sure that we protect this enormous asset we have.’” [E&E News, 9/19/19 (=)]