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EPA PROPOSES ENHANCED APPROACH TO CLEANING UP AMERICA’S WATERS
Release Date: 05/15/2002
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Environmental News
FOR RELEASE: WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 2002
EPA PROPOSES ENHANCED APPROACH TO CLEANING UP AMERICA’S WATERS
Robin Woods 202-564-7841/Woods.Robin@epa.gov
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christie Whitman today proposed a Water Quality Trading Policy to increase the pace and success of cleaning up impaired rivers, streams and lakes throughout the country. EPA officials believe this policy could save the public hundreds of millions of dollars by advancing more effective, efficient partnerships to clean up and protect watersheds. The policy encourages incentives to maintain high water quality where it exists as well as restoring impaired waters. In addition, the policy sets forth what EPA believes is necessary for state and tribal water quality trading programs to be successful and identifies provisions of acceptable trading programs that are consistent with the Clean Water Act and federal regulations.
“Many of us remember when some of our country=s rivers were so heavily polluted that they were catching fire in the 1960s,” said Whitman. “As a result of the Clean Water Act, signed into law in 1972, the discharge of pollutants by industry was greatly reduced. However, there is more to be done and the policy we are proposing today will help enhance the efforts that are already underway. This policy will lead to greater efficiency and better results, while being responsive, as we meet our clean water goals.”
Despite the accomplishments of the Clean Water Act, many of America=s waterways are still polluted by urban stormwater, sanitary sewer overflows, agricultural runoff and pollutants from the air that fall into our waters. What this policy seeks to encourage is more innovative approaches to meeting clean water standards and does not change any of the current regulations or standards that are in place.
“We=ve made a lot of progress controlling pollution from industrial and municipal sources,” Whitman explained. “Now we must look to innovative strategies that complement our current programs, to help us address the remaining challenges. Our Water Quality Trading Policy keeps existing controls and safeguards in place, but offers greater flexibility and incentives to states, tribes and companies to comply with the Clean Water Act. Trading provides incentives for voluntary reductions from all sources to improve and maintain the quality of the nation’s waters.”
The trading policy seeks to support and encourage states and tribes in developing and implementing water quality trading programs that implement the requirements of the Clean Water Act and federal regulations in more flexible ways and reduce the cost of improving and maintaining the quality of the nation’s waters.
Under the proposed policy, industrial and municipal facilities would first meet technology control requirements and then could use pollution reduction credits to make further progress towards water quality goals. In order for a water quality trade to take place, a pollution reduction “credit” should first be created. EPA=s water quality trading policy states that sources should reduce pollution loads beyond the level required by the most stringent technology requirements in order to create a pollution reduction “credit” that can be traded. For example, a landowner or a farmer could create credits by changing cropping practices and planting shrubs and trees next to a stream. A municipal wastewater treatment plant then could use these credits to meet water quality limits in its permit.
EPA officials believe that most trading will occur as states, tribes and sources implement programs to restore polluted waters. The policy supports trading among and between regulated and unregulated sources through watershed partnerships and programs developed by states and tribes.
EPA will publish a notice of availability in the Federal Register and post the proposed policy to protect and restore the nation=s waters at: https://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/trading.htm The policy will be open to public comment for 45 days. The final policy will be released later this summer.
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