AS THE WORLD GROWS THIRSTY, A VITAL QUESTION: WHO OWNS WATER?
In a world fast running short of fresh water, a new debate rages: Private companies are free to exploit oil, “black gold,” but what about the infinitely more valuable resource of “blue gold”? Two French companies alone, Suez and Vivendi Environment, supply water to 230 million people around the globe, from U.S. cities like Atlanta to urban centers across the Third <http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/08/08202002/ap_48196.asp>
WHY WATER WHEN IT’S RAINING?
Put rain sensors on your autosprinklers. They’re $20 to $35 at <color=”#000000″www.sprinklerwarehouse.com>
DENVER TO SEED CLOUDS TO BOOST WINTER SNOWPACK
Denver water officials plan to spend $700,000 to add 41 cloud-seeding units in the western mountains, in an attempt to increase snowfall next winter in the municipal watershed. Denver Post; <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=3744br>
DENVER WATER BOARD SOUNDS INCREASINGLY URGENT ALARM
The Denver Water Board, in charge of Colorado’s largest municipal supply, imposed large surcharges and ordered an end to lawn watering on Oct. 1, as supplies continue to wane. Denver Post; 8/22 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=4020>
COLORADO SKI RESORTS BUY WATER, PREPARE TO MAKE SNOW
Colorado ski resorts spent millions of dollars to buy water rights, and while farmers and ranchers incurred dramatic losses from the state’s current drought, the resorts stored enough water to make snow this winter. Denver Post; Aug. 24 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=4071>
COLORADO TOWN REMAINS DECADENT WITH WATER USE
While the rest of Colorado is brown and mired in water restrictions, Widefield has no water shortage and no restrictions, and some say city leaders are actually encouraging water use. Colorado Springs Independent; Aug. 30 <http://www.csindy.com/csindy/current/news.html>
DROUGHT, DEVELOPMENT SQUEEZE MULE DEER
Mule deer populations could crash this winter in Colorado and much of the region, as already stressed animals succumb to deep snow and cold. Denver Post; Sept. 3 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=4186>
INCENTIVES GOOD WAY TO CONSERVE UTAH’S MUNICIPAL WATER
Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District in Utah is doing a good job of making its citizens more aware of water use issues through its water-rate study and by encouraging conservation. Deseret News; Aug. 13 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=3850>
BROAD INPUT NEEDED ON FLAGSTAFF’S WATER CONSERVATION PLANS
City leaders in drought-stricken Flagstaff, Ariz., who want to initiate new, year-round water conservation measures, need to seek the input of residents and business owners to make the proposals work. Arizona Daily Sun; Aug. 28 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=4129>
SOME FEAR NEVADA RUNNING OUT OF WATER
Heat, drought and growth have strained Nevada’s water resources to the limit, and some cities and water districts probably won’t be able to meet demands. Reno Gazette-Journal; Aug. 18 <http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2002/08/17/21810.php?sp1=rgj&span>
WATER SHORTAGE COULD HALT LAS VEGAS’ GROWTH
For the first time, Las Vegas will exceed its allotment of Colorado River water, and observers say the city must find alternatives or stop growing. Salt Lake Tribune (AP); Aug. 25 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=4054>
YUCCA MOUNTAIN PROJECT
The completion and use of the nuclear waste depository requires a significant and permanent water supply. The Department of Energy application for water rights through state law and processes was denied on the grounds that the proposed use threatens to be detrimental to the public interest. Rather than pursuing a state court appeal provided by Nevada’s water code, the United States immediately filed a complaint in U.S. District Court on…preemption grounds. While the district court agreed the matter was one of state law, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and remanded that decision. Nevada and the Western States Water Council (WSWC) are asking Western Senators to take some action to counteract this challenge to state primacy. WSWC, 6/28.
WATER DEAL BETWEEN TRIBES AND PHOENIX COULD SET NATIONAL PRECEDENT –
A high-dollar agreement that sends tribal water to Phoenix could be a model deal illustrating how water-starved cities and impoverished reservations can mutually benefit each other. The Gila River Indian Community has agreed to sell 500 billion gallons of its water rights to irrigators and growing Phoenix-area cities for $200 million in federal funds. Christian Science Monitor; 8/16&19 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=3923> <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=3960>
USFWS BLUNDER COULD HARM CHUB
Due to a USFWS mistake, an invasive fish the gizzard shad has made it into Lake Powell, barely 100 miles above the Little Colorado River and “largest known population of endangered humpback chubs” says the Salt Lake Tribune 8/27. The gizzard shad and “as many as eight unwanted species” were inadvertently stocked in a New Mexico lake that “periodically overflows” into the San Juan River and Lake Powell. Biologists now predict the “robust and faster breeding” shad will “spread throughout the lake in two to five years.” It is only a matter of time before they reach the Little Colorado where the “intruders” will be “bad news” for the endangered humpback chub because they can “out-compete them for plankton and biomass.”
PROJECT TRANSFER
El Dorado Irrigation District (EID) and Reclamation have worked out the details of a memorandum of agreement governing the transfer of ownership of Sly Park. The transfer was ordered by congressional legislation signed by President Bill Clinton Oct. 27, 2000. A problem surfaced when EID pressed the bureau to clarify the transfer of water rights as part of the park transfer, only to discover that Reclamation wasn’t thinking along those lines at all. Working with 4th District Congressman John Doolittle, EID in mid-July succeeded in changing the bureau’s position on the water rights transfer. At the end of the transfer process, the costs of NEPA documentation of environmental impacts arising from the transfer will be apportioned equally between EID and Reclamation. The one remaining issue is the method of transfer. A quit claim deed ordinarily does not include any warranty that the deed issuer is able to transfer any rights in the property or the water. Placerville Mt. Democrat – 8/16/02
SRPA
The Water and Power Subcommittee of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on July 31, with a series of panels addressing a number of water-related bills, including S. 1882, Small Reclamation Projects Act. It would amend the Small Reclamation Projects Act of 1956 to authorize $1.3B for three Bureau of Reclamation programs, under which the Secretary of the Interior may make 50-percent-matching grants and loans and provide loan guarantees to organizations and tribes for small projects. A new Small Reclamation Water Resources Management Partnership Program limits grants and loans to $5M to implement projects that can be performed by the recipient organization’s workforce or contractors in 18 months or less, while expanding eligible activities to include water conservation, water quality improvements, water management for urban landscapes, drought assistance, fish and wildlife improvements, public safety improvements and other activities authorizes by the Secretary. Under a new demonstration loan guarantee program, up to 75% of total eligible project costs could be covered, with the guarantee expiring ten years after initial funding of projects. Reclamation Commissioner, John Keyes, testified the programs authorized by this bill would strain Reclamation’s financial and administrative resources and if enacted would make it even more difficult to meet our many other obligations. WSWC, 8/2.
LESS WATER FOR FISH
The White House has declined to appeal a U.S. federal court ruling that would provide water to the agriculture industry in California’s Central Valley potentially at the expense of Northern California’s fish and wildlife — a move that has provoked anger among environmentalists. In the earlier court case, the Westlands Water District, a 600,000-acre irrigation district in the western Joaquin Valley, successfully challenged the 1992 Central Valley Water Project Improvement Act. That act provided 800,000 acre-feet of water for fish and wildlife in the San Francisco Bay/ Sacramento River and San Joaquin River Delta system. Rather than appealing the ruling, Interior Secretary Gale Norton opted to have her agency draft new rules for environmental water releases. That decision dismayed environmentalists, who said changing the rules could devastate fisheries in the affected regions. They also feared the decision would spell the end of the useful life of CalFed, a joint state and federal agency formed after passage of the 1992 act to ensure fair resource distribution and avoid endless litigation over the state’s water supply. <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=406>
CADIZ
The long-anticipated Record of Decision (ROD) for the Cadiz Groundwater Storage and Dry Year Supply Project was issued by the US Department of Interior granting a new utility corridor for a 35-mile pipeline across the California Desert through lands under the control of the US Bureau of Land Management. The ROD sets forth Interior’s decision to issue a right-of-way grant and use permit which will require the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) to agree to and comply with 130 terms and conditions to mitigate the project’s impacts. The ROD was issued despite the vigorous opposition of Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, who introduced an amendment to the Senate Department of Interior Appropriations Bill which would have prohibited Interior from expending any federal funds to issue the ROD or issue the right-of-way. Now, the MWD Board of Directors must make two decisions in deciding whether or not to approve the project: (1) Vote on whether or not to certify the Final Environmental Impact Report, and (2) Vote on whether or not to enter into a contract with Cadiz.
A broad coalition of environmental and public interest groups is strongly opposed to this project because of its adverse environmental impacts, its high economic costs, and its precedent-setting implications for profiteering via privitization of a scarce desert water resource. The coalition includes the Sierra Club, National Parks Conservation Association, Public Citizen, Desert Survivors, The Wilderness Society, and several other national and regional environmental organizations, and is represented by the Western Environmental Law Center. <http://www.ca.blm.gov/news/2002/08/nr/SOnews07_Cadiz_ROD.htmlbr> <http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/4138176p-5163474c.html>
BLM PUBLISHES FINAL NORTHERN AND EASTERN MOJAVE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT
The Northern and Eastern Mojave (NEMO) proposed Plan Amendments and Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) has been released by the BLM. The FEIS describes and analyzes alternatives for managing species and habitats that affects 5.5 million acres of public lands administered by the BLM. Both environmentalist and off-roaders find plenty to complain about. <http://www.ca.blm.gov/news/2002/08/nr/CDDnews74_NEMO_FEIS.html> <http://www.vvdailypress.com/cgi-bin/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid102968span>
WATER EXPORT PROPOSAL REQUIRES STUDY
An Alaska businessman’s plan to export Mendocino County river water to San Diego must include a state study of its effects on salmon populations before being decided, according to a bill passed by the CA state Senate. The bill asks the Department of Fish and Game to study potential effects of reduced northern California river flows on salmon and steelhead populations. Alaska Water Exports proposes to tug 20,000 acre feet of water a year from the Gualala and Albion rivers to San Diego in battleship-sized bags. AP 8/28
HUGE HCP IN THE WORKS
Simpson Resource Co. is preparing a habitat conservation plan (HCP) to manage over 400,000 acres of its timberland on California’s North Coast says the Eureka Times-Standard 8/20. Once approved, the legally binding HCP will lock in management practices that are supposed to protect coho and chinook salmon, cutthroat, steelhead and rainbow trout, the tailed frog and southern torrent salamander. Key to the plan’s effectiveness are measures “to keep sediment out of the creeks” such as changes in winter operations and road maintenance and repair,” as well as “strict limits on cutting trees in streamside areas and on steep slopes.”
NO CANDIDATES FOR TINY WATER DISTRICT BOARD
Not one candidate has filed for the water board’s November election, according to San Diego County. The small water board safeguards the water rights of an aquifer that serves about 350 residents with 3,000 acres along both sides of the San Luis Rey River between Interstate 15 and Pala. Most of the district consists of commercial ranches that grow avocados, vegetables and other row crops. North County Times – 8/16
GOVERNMENT ATTORNEYS DEAL FOR IDAHO’S WILDERNESS WATER
State and federal attorneys are negotiating in secret to determine how much water will flow in the state’s wilderness rivers, and to balance interests of tens of thousands of floaters and outfitters against 3,000 irrigation claims. Idaho Statesman; 8/19 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=3955>
NO MORE WATER LEFT FOR REFUGE
The Bureau of Reclamation has told the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) that “after meeting the needs of threatened fish, Indian tribes and farmers, there was no more water left” to flood marshes for the fall waterfowl migration in the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, says SF Gate, AP 8/27. Refuge managers are asking farmers to conserve water and “donate what they can” so the refuge can at least get some water in time for the peak of the fall migration.
GILA CHUB PROPOSED FOR ENDANGERED LISTING
With only “31 isolated and vulnerable populations” remaining, the Gila chub is being proposed for an endangered listing under the ESA says the USFWS 8/9. Some “208 miles of spring-fed and perennial streams” in the headwaters of the Gila River in Arizona and New Mexico are also being proposed as critical habitat for the minnow. Once widespread throughout the Gila River basin, grazing, mining, agricultural irrigation, logging and fire suppression have so degraded the chub’s aquatic ecosystem that it “may never fully recover” and the fish faces additional threats from groundwater pumping, development and competition from non-native fish.
COALITION MOVES TO OVERTURN SALMON SETTLEMENT
Twenty fishing and conservation groups represented by Earthjustice are planning to sue the Bush administration to reverse a settlement agreement with the National Association of Home Builders. The settlement removed critical habitat protections for 19 stocks of endangered and threatened West Coast salmon, says Greenwire 8/2. The groups, which were “outraged” over the sweetheart settlement, see the lawsuit as a means for pushing the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to do a reanalysis of the economic impacts and redoing new critical habitat designations as soon as possible.
SALMON-HARVEST LAWSUIT SETTLED
The NMFS has settled a lawsuit by agreeing to postpone a plan for harvesting Puget Sound Chinook salmon until an EIS and biological opinion can be completed says Washington Trout 7/31. Overfishing is considered “one of the three major factors in salmon declines,” and WA Trout took the agency to court for approving a management plan that they maintained was “imposing too much risk on listed chinook.”
WHAT GOES DOWN COMES AROUND
“Despite lack of a clear statutory authority to help,” federal agencies have “promised to provide aid to offset the economic losses caused by drawing down Dworshak Reservoir to help fish migration” says the Idaho Statesman 8/14. In order to comply with the Endangered Species Act, the Idaho reservoir is drawn down each summer to cool water temperatures in the Snake River and “help flush young chinook salmon to the ocean.” “We are looking for ways to make the act work” said the NMFS.
BUDGET CRUNCH COULD STARVE BPA SALMON RECOVERY IN NORTHWEST
The Bonneville Power Administration has been receiving about half of its expected energy prices in the past few months, and one way it is looking to stave off rate increases is to cut some of the $350 million it spends each year on fish and wildlife issues. Conservationists were highly critical of the proposal to save money at the expense of salmon, saying that the agency is already failing to meet its financial commitments to restore salmon runs.Independent Record (AP); 8/14 <font face=”Arial” <http://www.helenair.com/montana/9A1.htmlbr>
REPORT SAYS AGENCIES SPENT $3.3 BILLION TO SAVE COLUMBIA RIVER SALMON
A government report says that 11 federal agencies alone spent $3.3 billion over the last 20 years to save salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River Basin, but with an indeterminate amount of success. Spokesman-Review; 8/28 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=4116br>
FEDS WILL OFFSET LOSSES INCURRED BY IDAHO RESERVOIR RELEASES THAT AID FISH
Federal officials promised to help communities affected by reservoirs that release extra water in summer to aid salmon on the lower Snake River. Idaho Statesman; 8/14 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=3892br>
STUDY CONTINUES TO DETERMINE OF MONTANA’S MILLTOWN DAM
Following last week’s announcement that the EPA will spend $100 million to clean up the upper Clark Fork River in Montana, the agency is studying the effects of removing contaminated sediments piled behind Milltown Dam downstream. A meeting between locals in Bonner, Montana, and EPA officials to discuss the agency’s cleanup plans grew heated as locals expressed concern over the fate of toxic sediments behind the dam. Billings Gazette (Missoulian); 8/23 & 30. <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=4049> <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=4165>
GROUPS ACCUSE NORTH IDAHO CITY OF TRYING TO THWART AQUIFER STUDY
Environmental groups protested Post Falls’ application to draw 13 million gallons of water a day from the underlying aquifer, saying the city is trying to reserve water before a study can determine how much is available. Spokesman-Review; 8/6 <http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=080602&ID=s119span>
DROUGHT STRAINS NEBRASKA GROUND WATER
Lately, Nebraska officials are more often stepping between cities and farmers to settle how much water each group can take from dwindling ground-water supplies. Washington Post (AP); 8/18 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=3936/div>
CRITICAL HABITAT PROPOSED FOR TOPEKA SHINER
As part of lawsuit settlement, the USFWS is proposing to designate over 2,230 miles of rivers and streams in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and South Dakota as critical habitat for the Topeka shiner, says the South Dakota Resources Coalition, Center for Biological Diversity and Earthjustice, 8/22. The groups say that protecting the shiner’s water quality will “also lower water treatment costs for small towns, improve duck hunting conditions and generally improve the health of our rivers and streams.” Once common in small prairie streams, the shiner is now “restricted to a few tributaries with the Missouri and Mississippi river basins” because of “loss of habitat due to stream sedimentation and decreased water quality.”
TELLICO REINTRODUCTION PLANNED
As part of an effort to recover threatened and endangered species in the Tennessee River ecosystem, four native fish species, the duskytail darter, smoky madtom, yellowfin madtom and spotfin chub will be released into the Tellico Rivers says the USFWS 8/12. The reintroduced species will be classified as a non-essential experimental populations (NEP)under the ESA, thus “ensuring that anyone killing or harming the fish as the incidental result of otherwise lawful activities would not be in violation of the law.” Although the fish will be protected under the ESA, NEP status significantly reduces the Act’s regulatory requirements such as those requiring Federal agencies to modify their activities to protect the reintroduced fish.
SUBURBAN SPRAWL BLOCKS WATER, WORSENS U.S. DROUGHT
Suburban strip malls, office buildings, and other paved areas have worsened the drought covering half the United States by blocking billions of gallons of rainwater from seeping through the soil to replenish ground water, environmental groups said recently. A report issued jointly by the Natural Resources Defense Council, American Rivers, and Smart Growth America gives the first estimate of U.S. ground water losses due to suburban sprawl over the past two decades. Atlanta is the nation’s most rapidly sprawling metropolitan area, creating an additional 57 billion to 133 billion gallons of polluted water runoff each year, the report said. Atlanta loses enough water to supply the average household needs of up to 3.6 million people a year, the report said. <http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/08/08292002/reu_48291.asp>
MONTANA COUNTY EXCLUDES ALL OIL, GAS DRILLING
Gallatin County, Mont., extended a ban on drilling for coalbed methane to include a ban on drilling for any type of oil or gas in an effort to keep J.M. Huber Corp. from acting on its oil and gas leases on 18,000 acres in the Bozeman Pass area. Casper Star-Tribune; Aug. 29 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=4121>
WATER TIDBIT
From the Bureau of Reclamation: While 16 percent of all U.S. ag land is irrigated, some 60 percent of all the crops sold come from those lands. This came as a response to a Dept. of Agriculture report that says since we are raising surplus crops, irrigation may not necessarily be the best use of water.
RUNNING OUT OF WATER
<http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0234/otis.phpfont> <http://www.nytimes.com/pages/world/worldspecial/index.htmlbr>
CANADIAN WATER SUPPLY
Global warming could spell big trouble for Canada’s freshwater supply, according to a report from the government agency Natural Resources Canada. The predicted global surface-air temperature increase of between 2.5 and 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century would sap some of the country’s hydroelectric power potential, lower lake levels, and pave the way for severe drought on the Canadian prairies, the report warns. Parts of the prairies are already suffering their second and third consecutive summer droughts. Other problems could include stranded docks and harbors as water levels drop, decreased potable water supplies, reduced fish habitat and possible species loss, financial troubles for agriculture, and the complete disappearance of some Arctic and sub-Arctic lakes. The report comes out as the Canadian government continues to waver on whether to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=362>
FEDERAL JUDGE SAYS WATER DISCHARGED FROM GAS DRILLING ISN’T A POLLUTANT
A federal judge said that drilling companies who discharge water into rivers pumped to the surface while extracting coalbed methane gas aren’t bound by the Clean Water Act because the water isn’t a pollutant based on federal regulations. Billings Gazette; Aug. 27 [The Colorado River Salinity Control Act does provide for control of saline discharges within that basin.] <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=4097>
HERBICIDE DANGER LAWSUIT
Conservationists announced plans to sue state and federal agencies that issued a permit allowing the Klamath Irrigation District to use a powerful weed killer in canals inhabited by endangered shortnosed and Lost Creek suckers says SF Gate, AP 8/15. Headwaters and the Oregon Natural Resources Council maintain that the state failed to consult with USFWS before issuing the permits. The suit also contends that the EPA is ignoring a federal appeals court ruling that required another Oregon irrigation district to get a permit after spilling the same herbicide, acrolein, “into a local creek, killing thousands of juvenile steelhead
EPA ISSUES $100 MILLION PLAN TO CLEAN UP MONTANA’S CLARK FORK RIVER
The EPA said it will spend upwards of $100 million to clean up mining waste along 160 miles of the upper Clark Fork River in western Montana. The Feds are hoping local residents will grant access to their properties so that contractors can revegetate the flood plain, as opposed to removing toxic sediments, which some agency scientists say is impossible anyway. (This plan doesn’t include Milltown Dam; that decision is expected this fall.) Independent Record; 8/16 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=3934> <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=4119> <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=4120/font>
DANGEROUS INVADERS
The Oregon Dept. of Agriculture’s Invasive Species Council has released its “top 100 list of the most dangerous invaders threatening the state in 2002” says the Newport News-Times 8/9. On top of the “most dangerous threats” list, which includes species that are “threatening to invade,” are the Chinese mitten crab, zebra mussel, kudzu, giant hogweed, gypsy moth, Japanese beetle and imported fire ant. While not at the top, Atlantic salmon were included on the list because of their potential to “compete with native salmon and harm already fragile populations of West Coast species.”
WATER POLLUTION VIOLATIONS ARE PERVASIVE AND INCREASING
U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) has charged violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA) by major industrial, municipal and federal facilities are pervasive and severe. Between January 2000 and March 2001, over one-quarter of the nation’s largest facilities seriously violated their CWA permits at least once, PIRG’s report says. The findings represent an increase across the spectrum of polluters from PIRG’s last report on the issue, with significant increases for federal facilities. Reviewing CWA violations as recorded in the EPA’s Permit Compliance System database, PIRG’s Permit to Pollute report found that 134 major facilities were in “significant non-compliance” (SNC) during the entire 15-month period. The report’s author, Richard Caplan, criticized the administration’s efforts to rely more on states for enforcement activity. President Bush’s fiscal year 2003 budget requested a $15 million state grant program. For the second year in a row, the Senate Appropriations Committee has increased EPA’s enforcement budget — this year by $20 million — and rejected the grant program. Besides more funding for EPA enforcement, PIRG is supporting legislation introduced by Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) that would follow many of the report’s recommendations, including tougher penalties for polluters, greater citizen access to the courts and expanding the availability of information on enforcement. <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=338>
TMDLs
As anticipated, the EPA announced that it would seek to alter a key Clean Water Act anti-pollution program in order to give states more flexibility in restoring their waterways. Under the revised program, states would develop and implement plans to clean up more than 20,000 dirty rivers, lakes, and estuaries. While the federal government would provide guidelines, oversight, and reviews, the proposed changes are in keeping with EPA Administrator Christie Whitman’s preference for “voluntary efforts” over mandatory regulations. Benjamin Grumbles, the EPA’s deputy assistant administrator for water, said the new approach would address the concerns of stakeholders, such as farm groups and state and local sewage-treatment agencies. But environmentalists say the changes would weaken an already iffy program that has left 44 percent of the nation’s water bodies in poor shape. The new regulations would supplant a July 2000 Clinton administration rule requiring EPA approval of state efforts to restore 300,000 miles of rivers and shorelines and 5 million acres of lakes. <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=344>
THE SWANCC FIX
Senator Russell Feingold (D-WI), and Rep. James Oberstar (D-MN), introduced the Clean Water Authority Restoration Act of 2002, respectively as S. 2780 and H.R. 5194. The bills would override last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (531 U.S. 159), or SWANCC case, which invalidated the Corps regulation of non-navigable, isolated, intrastate wetlands under the Clean Water Act (CWA). The proposed legislation replaces “navigable waters,” as defined in the Clean Water Act, with “waters of the United States.” It would define “waters of the United States” as “…all waters subject to the ebb and flow of the tide, the territorial seas, and all interstate and intrastate waters and their tributaries, including lakes, rivers, streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sandflats, wetlands, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, natural ponds, and all impoundments of the foregoing, to the fullest extent that these waters, or activities affecting these waters, are subject to the legislative power of Congress under the Constitution.” The bills have been referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment. WSWC, 8/16.
EQIP
The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 increased authorized funding under the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), administered by the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) under the general supervision of the Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). EQIP provides funds for technical and financial assistance to promote compatible national environmental quality and agricultural production goals for working lands. CCC announced the availability of up to an additional $200M in EQIP funds for FY2002 on July 24. For more information, contact Mark Berkland, Director, Conservation Operations Division, NRCS, (202) 720-1845, Fax 720-4265, or <mark.berkland@usda.gov> .
THESE WETLAND RESTORATIONS ARE FOR THE BIRDS
Maintaining healthy grassland/wetland ecosystems in the intensively farmed agricultural landscape of south-central Nebraska is a formidable challenge for today’s resource managers. Known as the Rainwater Basin, this 17-county area derives its name from the numerous shallow, rain-filled, playalike wetlands scattered across the landscape. <http://enn.com/news/enn-stories/2002/08/08152002/s_47750.asp>
NATIONAL WATER ASSESSMENT
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has released a report entitled “Concepts for National Assessment of Water Availability and Use,” as directed by the Congress to describe “the scope and magnitude of the efforts needed to develop and report on indicators of the status and trends in the availability and use of freshwater resources.” In response, the report addresses indicators such as storage volumes, flow rates, and uses of water nationwide. Adding a national water assessment USGS says would be “…analogous to the task of other Federal statistical programs that produce and regularly update indicator variables that describe economic, demographic, and health conditions of the Nation. The assessment also would provide regional estimates of recharge, evapotranspiration, interbasin transfers, and other components of the water cycle. These regional estimates would support analyses of availability that are undertaken by many agencies and would benefit research quantifying variability and changes in the national and global water cycle.” Copies of the 34-page report are available at <http://pubs.water.usgs.gov/circ1223> .
U.S. HAS MIXED REACTION TO NAFTA PANEL RULING
The United States welcomed a trade tribunal’s qualified rejection of a Canadian company’s complaint over California’s decision to ban the gasoline additive MTBE, but said it would have preferred the tribunal to throw the case out altogether. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) panel, in a ruling closely watched by environmental and business groups, said that Canada’s Methanex Corp., which produces methanol, the feedstock used to make MTBE, had failed to prove it had a right to damages of around $1 billion because of the ban. <http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/08/08092002/reu_48092.asp/font>
U.N. ENVIRONMENTAL CHIEF CALLS FOR ACTION TO PREVENT GLOBAL WATER CRISIS
A top United Nations official called for world leaders to move “from declarations to action and implementation” in helping developing countries manage scarce water resources. U.N. Environment Program head Klaus Toepfer said 1.1 billion people still lack access to safe drinking water and 2.4 billion lack access to adequate sanitation. <http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/08/08132002/ap_48115.asp/font>
AQUACULTURE
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announces the availability of a draft Code of Conduct for Responsible Aquaculture in the U. S. Exclusive Economic Zone (Code of Conduct). The purpose of the Code of Conduct is to provide general guidance for siting and operating aquaculture facilities in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) seaward of coastal state boundaries and authorities. NMFS solicits written comments on the Code of Conduct. NMFS also announces a schedule change for the publication of a final Code of Conduct. [Federal Register: 8/23, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 164)] <http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/aquaculture.htm>