Water We Supposed to Do?

Lag in water-pollution enforcement traced to muddled court decision

Posted at 2:58 PM on 08 Jul 2008

The U.S. EPA has neglected to pursue hundreds of potential violations of the Clean Water Act because of regulatory uncertainty, according to an internal memo. The lack of clarity stems from a 2006 Supreme Court ruling that left plenty up in the air about the types of waterways and wetlands that fall under EPA jurisdiction. The confusion has had "a significant impact on enforcement," wrote an EPA enforcement and compliance official in a March memo to the agency's assistant administrator for water. From July 2006 to December 2007, said the memo, the EPA failed to pursue 304 cases that would have clearly violated the Clean Water Act before the court's ruling. The agency also chose to "lower the priority" of 147 other cases. The memo was released Monday by Reps. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) and Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who stated that they have "grave concerns over the current status of implementation of the Clean Water Act" and asked that the EPA provide information about its enforcement process.

sources: The Washington Post, Associated Press, The Hill

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Comments: (3 comments)

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Environmental Polluting Agency

The Ministry of Silly Walks never ceases to amaze me.

by Masked Goddess at 8:37 AM on 09 Jul 2008

Poindexter

He actually had a plan to track terrorists by analyzing their "walks".

Yes goddess, DARPA almost made "The department of silly walks" a reality. "Brazil" (monty python) would supercede the "1984" (orwellian) model for the McBush team? That would be interesting.

I think the Obama children have effectively precluded that event, the kids are the best campaigners in the family!! Swiftboating will not work on them.

Confusion/incompetence (yur doin' a heckuva job brownie/bushie) is a legitimate form of government under the neoconservative banner. The self-fullfilling prophesy, government does nothing well, is the guiding principle.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

by amazingdrx at 9:08 AM on 09 Jul 2008

what they do not tell you

we wanted to develop housing after Katrina on our thirty acres for people who needed to move off the edge of hurricane land and therefore off the real wetlands. But the corp of engineers needs a reason to exist. We are at least 60 miles north from areas that would be described as wetlands.(we are northwest of New Orleans closer to the Mississippi border) After paying a consultant $4000 who could not find any place that one low strip on my property connects to the creek (which runs through part of my property and then away from the property away from the strip). The strip is actually on the opposite side of my property from the creek. It connects nowhere. They said "well it goes over here and then it goes under this road (no culverts there) and then it goes to the creek. To do this it would have to go through my neighbors houses. When I told them that it did not empty into the creek they said it had to do so somewhere. Somewhere- over the rainbow! I followed all possible avenues and took pictures and begged them to come out and take a physical look. They refused. Then they drew the wetland line all the way through my home and the 40 foot pecan trees that are there. All this they did from an aerial infrared photograph from 1998. They have refused to come out and physically verify this with me. They took 10 acres of my land for nothing. It will never have fish or any kind of wildlife on it because it does not hold water long enough. It is just a low strip that during the worst rains will hold water and then dry up. The 2006 ruling should have fixed problems like this and like the wetlands in Florida. They have ruined me and have not treated wetlands fairly. IF THEY WOULD QUIT MESSING WITH IMAGINARY WETLANDS AND DEAL WITH REAL WETLANDS WE MIGHT GET SOMEWHERE!

by janiceh1 at 10:07 AM on 26 Aug 2008

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