The Arkansas Democratic Gazette
http://www.ardemgaz.com Thursday, July 20, 2000 By Kim McGuire Congressman Marion Berry has introduced legislation that would nullify recently authorized Environmental Protection Agency rules for reducing water pollution. Berry's camp says he has picked up nonpartisan support for the resolution, which ensures that the new rules "have no force or effect." "With this resolution, I intend to reassert the will of the Congress and force the EPA to consider the perspective of America's farmers, foresters and landowners," Berry, D-Ark, said. Berry's joint resolution is part of a wave of legislation flowing from Washington, D.C., aimed at blocking the enforcement of new rules. Opponents, led by national agriculture and timber groups, have argued that the rules would cost billions of dollars to implement and take away states' powers to address water pollution through voluntary programs. Berry introduced the legislation Tuesday night, shortly before Congressman Jay Dickey, R-Ark, pitched a similar resolution that disapproves of the rules. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, who led a Senate subcommittee field hearing on the issue in Hot Springs last month, introduced a similar resolution Monday. Berry's resolution will now head to the House's Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for consideration. Congress has 60 legislative days to overturn the rules but would have to garner a two-thirds majority vote because such action would trigger a presidential veto. President Clinton has been a staunch proponent of the rules, which set water pollution limits, also called total maximum daily loads, on waterways threatened by pollution. The regulations target runoff from city streets, logging sites, and chemically treated lawns and farmland. The agency considers this kind of pollution "nonpoint source," which means it does not come out of a pipe. Three weeks ago, Clinton ordered the federal agency to finalize the rules by July 13 to thwart a rider attached to a military appropriations bill that could have cut off funding for any new EPA regulations. Members of Arkansas' congressional delegation -- including U.S Sens. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark, and Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark, who inserted the rider -- protested and accused the president of thumbing his nose at Congress. Environmental groups, however, lauded the move. "We find it the height of hypocrisy that Senators Hutchinson and Lincoln accused President Clinton of avoiding the will of Congress," said Tom McKinney, conservation chairman for the Sierra Club's Arkansas chapter. "This piece of anti-environmental legislation [the rider] was never put through the legislative process where all sides would have an equal opportunity to debate it's pitfalls." Under the rules, states must develop detailed plans to reduce pollution in more than 20,000 lakes, stream segments and bays that do not meet minimum federal water quality standards. Those plans must be complete by 2002 and implemented over a 15-year period. If Congress cannot muster up the two-thirds majority votes needed to defeat the new rules, the regulations will go into effect Oct. 1, 2001. "At the end of the day when you ask, 'How is this going to affect Arkansas?' the answer is 'not much,'" said Gregg Cooke, EPA Region 6 administrator. Cooke, who is based in Dallas, was meeting in Little Rock on Thursday with officials from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. He acknowledged difficulties that state environmental officials may encounter in implementing the total-maximum-daily-loads program, such as personnel shortages. "In my opinion, this has always been an administrative issue," he said. "Every state is saying we don't have the kind of people we need to do this." The total-maximum-daily-loads program was established under the 1972 Clean Water Act. Few states, however, actually enforced the rules, prompting several environmental groups to sue. In Arkansas, the Sierra Club and four other groups successfully sued the EPA, forcing the agency to oversee the calculation of hundreds of streams' pollution thresholds. The settlement calls for the state to calculate the pollution loads on about 20 streams a year until the job is complete. This article was published on Thursday, July 20, 2000 Back to Arkansas state page
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