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The Clean Water Network Calls On The Bush Administration To Implement The Existing Watershed Cleanup Program & Not Move Forward With A Rulemaking
RULEMAKING STATUS
A draft rule is currently undergoing internal review within the administration. The administration has not announced any decisions to formally propose a new rule.
CWN POSITION
The Clean Water Network opposes the January 10, 2003 draft Watershed Rule, which proposes new regulations to guide the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program. This proposal, if promulgated, would:
Allow states to avoid doing cleanup plans for many polluted waters; Make cleanup plans less effective by not assigning responsibility to specific sources; Fail to protect waters that are in danger of becoming polluted; Attempt to allow EPA to escape its responsibility for ensuring watershed plans are designed to clean up polluted waters; and Allow states to drop polluted waters from cleanup lists.
We additionally oppose further changes that the Administration is currently considering in the context of the informal review process at OMB. Specifically, we oppose changes that would weaken current requirements for states to prepare cleanup plans for waters polluted by sediment or heat. For these reasons, we urge the Administration not to proceed with this rulemaking and not to issue a rule.
NEWS ITEMS
On June 23, 2003, 14 national environmental groups submitted a letter to US EPA Administrator Christine Whitman asking her to withdraw the TMDL rulemaking, as well as the Scope of the Clean Water Act rulemaking, before stepping down from her post on June 27. [Read the letter.] In addition to the letter, CWN sponsored a call-in action day in which thousands of activists flooded US EPA, and the White House Office of Management and Budget and Council on Environmental Quality offices urging them not to go forward with these destructive rulemakings. From the information we have heard back, phones were ringing off the hooks at EPA and the White House (CEQ and OMB) all day. These agencies will not report to us how many calls they got -- though we do know that EPA had five receptionists working all day to handle to the large number of calls. We can be sure that we got the attention of EPA and the White House and they heard our message that they should not go forward with the rule.
On March 19, 2003 US EPA withdrew the 2000 TMDL rule developed by the Clinton Administration. This rule was never implemented and the withdrawal notice published in the Federal Register does not comment on whether the Agency will or will not propose a new TMDL rule. You can find the Federal Register Notice on the rule withdrawal by clicking here.
EPA Rolls Out “Water Sense” Water Efficiency Program
(Jun 30, 2006)
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