By Roger Witherspoon
The Journal News (Westchester County, NY)
October 19, 2002 Saturday
Many fear changes to law will weaken efforts to clean up
The Journal News
Thirty years ago yesterday, the nation embarked on an unprecedented effort to stop
the destruction of the nation's wetlands and streams and the wholesale degradation
of the Hudson River and other major waterways.
The passage of the 1972 Clean Water Act over the veto of then-President Richard
Nixon was intended to make every water body in the nation safe for swimming,
drinking and fishing. The newly created federal Environmental Protection Agency
began working with the states to end the unfettered dumping of raw and
undertreated sewage and commercial wastes. The act also launched a new attempt
to control land use, construction, and agricultural and industrial practices that
created toxic runoffs into pristine waterways.
In many respects, the act has been a great success. It has led to the revitalization of
many waterways once considered dead, such as Lake Erie and parts of the Hudson
River. It launched a regulatory process requiring an environmental analysis for
construction and dumping projects. And it has ended much of the dumping of raw
sewage that made 75 percent of the nation's rivers and lakes unfit for bathing or
drinking.
"The waters of this country are cleaner and safer now, thanks to the Clean Water
Act," said Jane Kenney, EPA regional administrator for the New York area. "Thirty
years ago, there was a crisis. Lakes were dying, and the water was too dirty for
swimming. Now, we are developing more innovative solutions to water quality
challenges."
But after three decades of effort, the drive for cleaner waters has failed to reach
many of its primary goals, achieved uneven results in major problem areas, and
become the subject of contention between the Bush administration and
environmental groups, who disagree on the best way to address continuing issues.
EPA officials say the administration is holding up some enforcement rules and
reviewing key provisions of the act in an effort to make it more effective in
protecting the nation's water. Critics, including New York state officials and a
coalition of more than 1,000 environmental organizations, contend the
administration appears to be weakening the act to make it easier for businesses to
resume polluting the nation's waterways.
"The Bush administration is systematically dismantling the tools that brought us this
far: cleaning up raw sewage, protecting wetlands, and defining those rivers and
lakes eligible for protection, said Betsy Otto, co-chair of the Clean Water Network.
Benjamin Grumbles, the EPA's deputy assistant administrator for water, said the
contention that the administration intends to gut or weaken the act "is a
mischaracterization of what we are planning to propose." He said it was unfair for the
environmental community make such criticisms before any action has been taken.
There is "confusion," Grumbles said, as to what waters should be covered by the act,
"and we plan to clarify it. We don't know where we will come out on this issue, but
we recognize the value and importance of wetlands. The only question is, to what
extent do we offer protection?"
The act called for people to be able to swim in all waterways by 1983 and for the
elimination of toxic discharges by 1985.
In 1972, more than 75 percent of the nation's waterways were unfit for drinking,
swimming or fishing. By 1988, a biannual EPA report showed that figure had dropped
to just under 40 percent. It has held at that level for several years, but the agency's
2002 report shows that 45 percent of the nation's waters are now unfit for public
use.
The primary causes of the increased contamination are sewage overflows from aged
sewage and stormwater systems, and pollution caused by runoff. The latter has
increased as more and more open land is covered by hard surfaces from roads and
developments, eliminating the natural filtering by the earth.
"Every seven months," said Kenney of the EPA, "the oil we spill from our cars that
washes into our waterways amounts to more than the oil spilled by the Exxon
Valdez."
Water pollution has turned out to be far more difficult to eliminate than was
envisioned when the ambitious act was passed 30 years ago. The development of
treatment programs to reduce sewage in the river and the curtailing of industrial
discharges restored much of the Hudson River's vitality, for example, but they were
only a partial success.
"The act was responsible for helping us to restore the Hudson from an open sewer to
a river that is being visited by record numbers of people, and where you can now
swim for the first time in decades," said Alex Matthiessen, director of the Garrison-
based environmental group Riverkeeper. "But there are still serious problems with
cities like New York and Albany, where they have combined sanitation and sewage
systems, and every time there is a big rain you get an overflow and untreated
sewage in the river. You cannot swim near New York City for a couple of days after a
rain because of raw sewage in the Hudson."
In the past five years, there were 261 untreated discharges by sewer systems in
Westchester County, according to an analysis of state and federal records by the
Citizens Campaign for the Environment in White Plains. As a result of those
discharges and surface runoff, nine of the reservoirs in Westchester and Putnam
counties are considered "impaired" and not fit for drinking without treatment, said
Jim Tierney, the state's watershed inspector general.
While some environmentalists remain highly critical of the act's results - John Cronin,
resident scholar in environmental studies at Pace University, called it "an abysmal
failure" - others acknowledge there have been successes. "The act accomplished a
great deal," said Andy Mele, director of the Poughkeepsie-based environmental
group Clearwater, which spearheaded the drive for the 1972 law. "Its crowning
achievement was in the management of wastewater. It opened the door for the state
and federal funds to combine and build sewage treatment plants."
Yet, all are united in their concern for the future. There is a fear that continued
efforts to clean the rivers and waterways may be curtailed if there are significant
changes in the Clean Water Act's major provisions, according to the Clean Water
Network, a coalition of more than 1,000 environmental organizations. The concern
stems from testimony by EPA officials before the Senate Environmental Committee
earlier this month that the agency intends to redefine what waters are covered by
the act.
Local environmental groups, joined by the state League of Women Voters, yesterday
called on Gov. George Pataki and state agencies to enforce the act in New York and
renew their commitment to upholding the law in the Hudson River Valley and the
New York City watershed.
Grumbles said the EPA would have public hearings on the appropriate scope of the
act. He said he believed it would involve tributaries and certain types of isolated and
adjacent waters.
Reach Roger Witherspoon at rwithers@thejournalnews.com or 914-696-8566.
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