WaterNews for the week of July 8, 2002

WaterNews is a weekly on-line publication that announces publications, policies, and activities of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water.

Inside this week's WaterNews:

1) Year of the Clean Water and July Beach Month Activities

2) Federal Appeals Court Upholds Authority to Establish TMDLs for Nonpoint Source- Impaired Waters

3) Grants awarded to drinking water systems

Year of the Clean Water and July Beach Month Activities

The Environmental Protection Agency's National Water Program is launching a year-long celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act and its commitment to meeting the Act's goals by featuring water programs each month.

The nationwide campaign is focused on educating the American people about watersheds, water conservation and water monitoring, safe drinking water, nonpoint source pollution (polluted runoff) and others.

Administrator Christie Whitman, Assistant Administrator G. Tracy Mehan and Deputy Assistant Administrator Ben Grumbles will be participating in special events all year long and marking the actual anniversary day, Oct. 18, National Water Monitoring Day.

Administrator Christie Whitman, today (July 12), is awarding $259,742 to the State of Maine to improve beach water monitoring and public notification at Ferry Beach in Saco and at other Maine beaches.

A series of posters, bookmarks, brochures, feature articles, commentaries and other printed materials have been published in honor of the anniversary. For the month of July we are focusing on protecting our nations beaches. The Year of the Clean Water website will be up and running soon.

"The Environmental Protection Agency has so much information that can improve the daily life of the American people and we want to get these messages out, " said G. Tracy Mehan, Assistant Administrator. "By informing people of new ideas to solve environmental challenges, we believe this campaign will further our efforts in meeting the Clean Water Act's goals."

For more information please call Shakeba Carter-Jenkins at 202-564-6385.

Federal Appeals Court Upholds Authority to Establish TMDLs for Nonpoint Source- Impaired Waters

On May 31, 2002, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Pronsolino v. Nastri that section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act authorizes EPA and the States to list and establish total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) for waters impaired only by nonpoint sources of pollution. The Ninth Circuit found support for its conclusion in the language and structure of section 303(d), as well as the overall approach of the Clean Water Act. The ruling affirms an earlier decision of a Federal district court, the first Federal court to squarely address the question of the applicability of section 303(d) listing and TMDL requirements to nonpoint source-impaired waters.

The case arose out of EPA's establishment of a sediment TMDL for the Garcia River in California. The American Farm Bureau Federation and other agriculture and timber groups sued EPA, saying that EPA and the States should calculate TMDLs only for waters impaired by point sources. For more information on the Pronsolino v. Nastri decision, visit the TMDL Lawsuit Information page at http://www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl/lawsuit.html on Internet.

Grants awarded to drinking water systems

EPA has made significant progress in awarding grants to large drinking water systems serving more than 100,000 persons to assess their vulnerabilities and improve their security to potential terrorist attacks. Since late May, 266 grants have been awarded to large public water systems, totalling over $3.5 million. About 400 grants ($53 million) are expected to be awarded to these large public systems by the end of July.

For more information please call Roy Rathbun at 202-564-9932.

Please forward this message to your friends and colleagues who share an interest in water-related issues and would like to hear from EPA's Office of Water. To subscribe to the WaterNews listserv:

• Send an email message, leave the subject line blank, and address it to:
  waternews-join@lists.epa.gov
  
  
• In the body of the message write:
  Subscribe waternews firstname lastname
  (Please leave one blank space between each word, do not include any other message, and use your actual name- i.e. Subscribe waternews Robert Jones)

A welcome message will appear in your email box once you are officially subscribed. WaterNews will be sent to you at the end of each week. If you encounter difficulties subscribing to this list server or if you would like to be taken off the WaterNews list server at any time, please send your E-mail address to Gloria Posey at Posey.Gloria@epa.gov.

WaterNews Home

Reference Information | Web Satisfaction Survey

EPA Home | Privacy and Security Notice | Contact Us