EPA Wants Water Professionals to Support New Wetland Rules

The Swamp Stomp

Volume 14, Issue 42

Speaking at the Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Gina McCarthy, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator, requested that wastewater professionals begin to back the agencies proposed Waters of the U.S. rule. The controversial rule attempts to redefine which bodies of water fall under the Clean Water Act, and, subsequently, the EPA’s jurisdiction.  If the rule is passed then wetlands, streams, and various watersheds would become subject to federal regulations.

McCarthy, however, holds the opinion that in order to maintain safe water supplies in the U.S., then new regulations of wetlands and runoff entering streams and rivers are necessary. Therefore, in an attempt to establish supporting evidence, she requested that water professionals back the rule. She said, “As water managers, as regulators, as technicians, help us explain what this rule is and isn’t.”

McCarthy then cited the August shutdown of the water supply in Toledo, Ohio, as proof for why new regulations ought to be implemented. The shutdown occurred due to a toxic algae bloom—created by added nutrients running into the city’s water supply—infecting Lake Erie. Subsequently, the water was forced to be shut down for two days.

Such an event, McCarthy said, “is what one would call a wake-up call.” She continued, “It’s 2014, folks, 2014, in the most prosperous nation on earth. Yet for two full days, thousands of families couldn’t access life’s most basic necessity.”

Furthermore, McCarthy approached the issue from an economic standpoint. Since the implementation of the Clean Water Act in 1972, the nation’s economy tripled, which, she claims, “goes to show that having environmental protection does not stifle economic growth.” Correlation, however, does not prove causation, so the implication that EPA regulations provide a positive effect of the nation’s economy remains unsubstantiated.

If the Waters of the U.S. rule is passed, then 60 percent of the nation’s streams and wetlands will be subject to the Clean Water Act. McCarthy believes that this will make it easier to maintain healthy water supplies for drinking water. She said, “These streams and wetlands filter pollution, they reduce runoff, they recharge our groundwater supplies. How critical is that in areas of continued or historic droughts?”

“And we know our iconic water bodies like Boston Harbor, like the Chesapeake Bay, like the Great Lakes as a whole, like the Mississippi, like the Missouri, they rely on clean streams and they rely on wetlands to feed into those water supplies, in order to maintain them as viable opportunities for clean drinking water,” she continued.

Climate change, according to McCarthy, also plays a significant role in water quality. She said that the warmer temperatures on Lake Erie this year—possibly resulting from global warming—exacerbated the toxic algae bloom.

Due to the sea levels possibly rising because of global warming, she said, “If we don’t act by 2050, more than $100 billion worth of coastal property could be submerged.” She continued, “But we don’t need to wait until 2050, folks, we know it’s happening today. We’ve already heard about the drought in California that’s historic, that is challenging that great state to find a way to protect their economic growth opportunities, and frankly, to find a way to continue to have their faucets continue to have clean water when they turn them on.”

As the debate over the Waters of the U.S. rule continues, the EPA is reaching for more controversial topics—such as global warming—to justify their claims, depending on economic correlation rather than economic causation to demonstrate economic benefits, and is pleading that wastewater professionals begin to back their proposal.

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