A follow up to yesterday's action alert:
Send comments on Iowa's impaired waters list to:
Iowa Department of Natural Resources
Water Quality Bureau
Attn: TMDL Program
502 E 9th Street
Des Moines, IA 50319
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Comments should be copied to Paul Schwaab at:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region VII
901 North 5th Street
Kansas City, Kansas 66101
or [log in to unmask]
For questions or more information from the DNR, contact Chris Van Gorp at 515-281-4791
For materials to help you comment, visit the Clean Water Network's website at www.cwn.org and click on "impaired waters." Look for the listing toolkit, which includes a checklist for reviewing the list and two sample comment letters.
For general comments, you can use information from Sierra Club's previous letter to the DNR regarding the listing methodology (pasted below).
Ideas to include in your comments:
-According to U.S. EPA guidelines (40 CFR 130.7), "upon request by the Regional Administrator, each State must demonstrate good cause for not including a water or waters on the list. Good cause includes, but is not limited to, more recent or accurate data; more sophisticated water quality modeling; flaws in the original analysis that led to the water being listed in the categories in Section 130.7(b)(5); or changes in conditions, e.g., new control equipment, or elimination of discharges."
The "credible data" law is not "good cause" for removing some water bodies from the current (1998) list. If the DNR proposes to de-list some water bodies, they need to make the case that there is more recent or accurate data that shows that those water bodies are no longer impaired or that there were errors in the original analysis. An Iowa state law that restricts what data can be used to list a water body as impaired is not a "good cause" (or good science) to remove water bodies from the list.
-The credible data law also violates some provisions of the federal Clean Water Act, a fact that was pointed out during the 2000 debate on the legislation. If the requirements of the credible data law are used in listing methodology, the result may be EPA disapproval of the 303(d) list and subsequent federal action.
For example:
Restricting the use of data to data which is within five years of the action under consideration may result in EPA disapproval Iowa's 303(d) list and/or Iowa-developed TMDLs, depending on the water body, pollutant, and action being taken.
The credible data law also states that credible data is not required for the 305(b) report (water quality assessment). But the law goes on to say that if credible data is not required for the 305(b) report, "the placement of a water of the state on any section 305(b) report alone is not sufficient evidence for the water of the state's placement on any section 303(d) list."
However, the Clean Water Act implementing regulations require that the state assemble and evaluate all existing and readily available water quality related data and information to develop the 303(d) list. According to the EPA, this includes "at a minimum (among other data and information), waters identified by the State in its most recent 305(b) report that do not meet or partially meet their designated uses." The DNR will be expected to provide an explanation of why the information from the 305(b) report isn't sufficient to support 303(d) listings. If the DNR doesn't provide a reasonable explanation, the EPA might disapprove the 303(d) list.
-The DNR has proposed that some of the water bodies that will be removed from the impaired waters list will go onto a "list of waters in need of further investigation." According to the DNR's draft listing methodology, this list is not part of the 303(d) process and "includes waterbodies where limited information suggests, but does not conclusively (credibly) demonstrate, a water quality impairment."
The 2002 "list of waters in need of further investigation" will consist of two groups:
1. Publicly-owned lakes in Iowa that were added to the 1998 list primarily on the basis of best professional judgment and that are currently being monitored as part of lake assessment programs.
Because the DNR/Iowa State Univ. study of 132 lakes just started in 2000, there are only two years of data, and the DNR listing methodology requires three years of data.
2. Publicly-owned wetlands that were placed on the 1998 list solely on the basis of best professional judgment and for which the appropriate monitoring programs and assessment criteria have yet to be developed.
The EPA put most of these wetlands on the 1998 list.
Here's the problem with the "list of waters in need of further investigation."
If a water body is removed from the impaired waters list (303(d) list) and put onto the "list of waters in need of further investigation," there is no enforcement mechanism to make sure that further monitoring takes place to determine whether that water body really is impaired.
Especially for the wetlands, there is no guarantee that the DNR will create appropriate monitoring programs and assessment criteria. When the EPA put the wetlands on the 1998 list, the DNR stated that the wetlands didn't belong on the list because they are currently assessed by lake criteria, which is inappropriate. However, the DNR should then create wetlands assessment criteria and monitoring programs, to more appropriately deal with the listing (or de-listing) of wetlands. The DNR has had 4 years to begin the process of creating wetlands criteria and monitoring programs, but has not done so.
If Iowa wetlands have been on the impaired waters list for the past 4 years and the DNR hasn't taken action to more adequately assess and monitor them, why will they take action on wetlands on a "list of waters in need of further investigation," a list that has no legal ramifications?
Unless the DNR can show that new, more accurate data proves that the publicly-owned lakes and wetlands should not be on the impaired waters list, those water bodies should stay on the list. And assessment criteria and monitoring programs should be created for wetlands.
Erin E. Jordahl
Director, Iowa Chapter Sierra Club
3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280
Des Moines, IA 50310
515-277-8868
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