wrote:] >The EPA has just been ordered by the federal court to
] >require the State of Oregon to stop delaying Clean Water Act
] >enforcement.
]
]
] Do you have more info on this?
]
] Thanks,
]
] Doug Quirk
August 2, 2000
Judge allows deadline on water plans to swell
By LANCE ROBERTSON The Register-Guard
The federal government will get another 10 years to complete water-quality plans in Oregon under the Clean Water Act, a federal judge in Eugene has decided.
U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan approved a settlement agreement between two conservation groups, several industry groups and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that requires the cleanup plans for more than 13,000 miles of streams and rivers in Oregon.
That settlement, however, doesn't involve the main plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit against the EPA.
An attorney for former agency official Jack Churchill and the Sierra Club said he is disappointed Hogan didn't order the state Department of Environmental Quality to complete the pollution-control plans within six months, which is what the plaintiffs demanded.
The DEQ is doing the plans under the guidance of the federal agency, which is responsible for carrying out the Clean Water Act.
Churchill, who lives in Agness, and the Sierra Club said the EPA and DEQ were in violation of a 1987 consent decree - also reached in a lawsuit filed by Churchill and others - that required the plans to be completed by 1992.
After a July hearing, Hogan last week issued a new consent decree. Industry groups, the EPA and the Northwest Environmental Advocates - which also was a party to the lawsuit - agreed to the settlement.
"We're disappointed the new consent decree won't include the time lines we wanted, but we're pleased the court again is going to require the EPA and the state of Oregon to take steps for restoring Oregon's polluted waters," said David Rees, Churchill's attorney. He said an appeal is being considered.
Nina Bell, executive director of Northwest Environmental Advocates, said the new decree will "give Oregonians the clean water promised by the Clean Water Act over 28 years ago."
At issue is a provision in the 1972 act intended to reduce pollution from direct discharges, urban runoff, farms, roads and forestlands. When a stream reaches its carrying capacity of pollutants - referred to as Total Maximum Daily Loads, or TMDLs - the law mandates that steps be taken to reduce the level.
The 1987 court order directed Oregon to establish the necessary TMDLs at a rate of 20 percent per year, or a minimum of two rivers per year.
The state DEQ has completed only about 10 percent of the more than 1,500 TMDL plans needed to cover the streams, rivers and other waterways in Oregon where water quality is poor.
Jannine Jennings, the EPA's TMDL program manager for Oregon, said the 10 years granted by Hogan will give the state meaningful plans.
Requiring the plans to be completed in six months "would have led to the development of TMDLs that are just paper documents with little environmental meaning," Jennings said, adding, that the consent decree "supports the program we've been moving forward on."
http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com . design, building, digital media
+ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - +
Artifice, Inc. ...the way of architecture
http://www.artifice.com
http://www.cadoutpost.com
http://www.greatbuildings.com
http://www.designcommunity.com
800.203.8324 toll free . 541.345.7421 voice . 541.345.7438 fax
creative tools and media for spatial design . Eugene, Oregon, USA
+ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - +