Iowans:

FYI. Should be of significant interest.

Lyle Krewson
6403 Aurora Avenue #3
Des Moines, IA 50322-2862

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515/276-8947 - Phone/Fax
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From: Paula Carrell <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: FRED <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2000 08:39:03 -0700
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: URGENT - REVISED TMDL TALKING POINTS AND UPDADE

Author:  Ed Hopkins at Sierra-Club-DC
Date:    07/11/2000 10:52 PM


THIS CONTAINS REVISED TALKING POINTS.  PLEASE DISCARD WHAT WAS SENT EARLIER
AND USE THESE INSTEAD. APOLOGIES FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.
     
Folks -
     
Almost two months ago, Kathryn Hohmann wrote you to explain why the Club was
calling for EPA to withdraw a fatally-flawed rule establishing new
procedures for EPA's Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program.  Much has
happened since then, and the Club has taken a new position on TMDL rules.

In response to comments by the Club and other organizations, EPA made many
improvments in the proposed rule.  A few important improvements include the
following:


ÿ       The new rule requires plans that demonstrate how states (or EPA, if
a state fails) will implement pollution controls to assure that a water body
will meet water quality standards.  EPA maintains that, under current rules,
implementation plans are not required, nor is EPA action required if a state
fails to act.

ÿ       EPA must step in when a state fails to establish TMDLs.  EPA
maintains that under current rules, this obligation exists only when the EPA
disapproves a state's TMDLs, not when a state fails to do them at all.
     
ÿ       The new rules establish an expectation that water quality standards
will be met within ten years.  EPA has not interpreted the current rules to
impose a timeframe for achieving water quality standards.

ÿ       The rule requires monitoring plans to assess cleanup progress and
establishes a process for revising the TMDL is water quality standards are
not met.  EPA has not required monitoring and TMDL revision under the
current rules.


While EPA was preparing to finalize this rule, Congress slipped a rider
preventing EPA from finalizing and implementing the new rules into the
emergency supplemental portion of the Military Construction Appropriations
bill conference report.  Members could not take an up-or-down vote on the
bill, and it passed both houses.

The Administration could not realistically veto the bill, but it instructed
the EPA to finalize the rule before the President signed the bill.  That
occurred today.  This may set up a major fight about clean water and
anti-environmental riders.  A press release from the Sierra Club, NRDC and
US PIRG follows commenting on today's action.  If you have questions about
our position on this, please contact me.  Volunteer leaders involved in the
Club's decisions on this include Albert Ettinger, Roy Hengerson and Hank
Graddy.
     
Ed
     
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
     
CONTACT: Daniel Rosenberg or Elliott Negin at NRDC, 202-289-6868 Ed Hopkins
or 
Debbie Sease at Sierra Club, 202-547-1141
Liz Hitchcock at U.S. PIRG, 202-546-9707
     
Environmentalists Hail EPA Announcement To Improve Controls on Water
Pollution Program Will Cover 'Point' and 'Non-Point' Sources

WASHINGTON (July 11, 2000) û The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC),
U.S. PIRG, and Sierra Club applauded today's announcement by the
Environmental Protection Agency that it will finalize a new rule to
strengthen controls on water pollution from "point" sources such as
factories and "non-point," or nonspecific, sources such as agricultural
pesticide runoff.

"Today's rule is a critical step to control polluted runoff that damages our
nation's lakes, streams and rivers," says Daniel Rosenberg, an NRDC
attorney. "Polluted runoff is the number one water quality problem in this
country."

The EPA's action will strengthen the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program
just as Congress is attempting to undermine it. A cornerstone of the 1972
Clean Water Act, the TMDL program is a long-delayed effort to improve water
quality in lakes and rivers not suitable for fishing, swimming or drinking.
Currently 40 percent of our nation's waterways do not meet federal water
quality standards.

In recent years, members of Congress have resorted to provisions known as
riders to block environmental and public health legislation without
providing the opportunity for public comment. "It's outrageous that
politicians continue to tack on anti-environmental riders onto unrelated
appropriations bills, " says Gene Karpinski, executive director of U.S.
PIRG. "The result is dirty air and water."

Two weeks ago some members of Congress attached a harmful rider to an
unrelated military construction funding bill to block EPA from finalizing or
implementing the new TMDL rule. The agency is finalizing the rule before the
president signs the funding bill into law.

"Polluting industries and their allies in Congress have tried to deny the
American public its right to clean water by attaching damaging legislation
to bills behind closed doors," says Debbie Sease, Sierra Club's legislative
director, "Today we put the special interests on notice that we will fight
any attempts to overturn the new EPA rule."
     
-30-

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