Senate Shift To Democrats Means Priorities May Shift

By Maureen Lorenzetti

The surprise decision by Sen. James Jeffords (I-VT) to leave the Republican party will have a dramatic impact on the organization of the Senate but may not have an immediate impact on water issues, Congressional sources predict. Senate Democrats now have assumed control but are keenly aware that their majority is by a very slender margin. Democrats now control the Senate by a margin of one.

Jeffords is now an independent but he will participate in legislative strategy sessions with Democratic leaders. In a concession made by Senate Democrats, Jeffords will assume the chairmanship of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the key Senate panel that focuses on water issues. He replaces Bob Smith (R-NH). Majority Whip Harry Reid (D-NV), who was the top Democrat on the committee, agreed to step aside and focus on his leadership post.

Congressional sources predicted that water infrastructure issues will not dominate the legislative agenda despite the changeover in leadership.

"The same number of votes are here; we don't expect big policy shifts," said one veteran staffer.

The committee under Jeffords is expected to spend much of the summer focused on air pollution issues although there will be ongoing discussions and perhaps even more hearings on upgrading the country's aging wastewater infrastructure. Jeffords has a long history of endorsing environmental measures, including legislation designed to tighten clean water regulations.

One policy issue that has implications for both clean air and water is the debate over the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have pledged to move forward with legislation this summer.

Sen. Harry Reid, the former ranking Democrat on the committee, introduced bipartisan legislation May 24 with then chairman Sen. Robert Smith (R-NH) to ban the chemical from gasoline. The oxygenate is commonly used by refiners to meet clean fuel requirements mandated under the Clean Air Act of 1990. MTBE lowers harmful tailpipe emissions but because it is highly soluble in water it has contaminated some local water supplies in areas prone to leaking underground gasoline storage tanks. The chemical is far less toxic than gasoline but has a strong smell and can trigger headaches or nausea in some people.

"While adding MTBE to gas was intended to help clean the air, it also has contaminated wells, rivers and lakes. This legislation would ban the use of gasoline additive no later than four years after enactment and without disrupting fuel supplies or threatening air quality," said Reid.

Smith and Reid's bill would let states waive the oxygenate requirement for reformulated gasoline under the Clean Air Act. States would still have to meet emission targets by requiring refiners to meet a regional performance standard. States would also be given more money to clean up contaminated storage tanks. MTBE meanwhile would be banned four years after the bill became law. The proposed legislation would also amend clean air legislation to direct the Environmental Protection Agency to tighten its rules for future additives to ensure public health is not compromised.

MTBE producers who switched their production away from the chemical would also be eligible for grants.

California Lawmakers Seek Funding for CALFED Program

A bipartisan group of California lawmakers in the House and Senate each introduced sweeping legislation that would reauthorize $3 billion to ensure the state's water supplies are environmentally safe and reliable.

Some of the money would go to reauthorize the California Federal Bay Delta program (CALFED) and related initiatives. CALFED is a partnership between the state and the U.S. Department of Interior that seeks to manage water supplies.

Sponsors Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, and Rep. Ken Calvert, R-CA, acknowledged from the onset that their legislation will be controversial.

"The bill I am presenting (S.976, the California Ecosystem, Water Supply, and Water Quality Enhancement Act of 2001) is balanced. It says, in essence, that the storage projects go ahead at the same time as the environmental projects. I believe very strongly that we are not going to be able to solve the problem just with environmental measures, that we need additional water storage as well," Feinstein said May 25.

"I do not believe we can meet all of our future water needs without increased water storage, water storage that is environmentally benign, that is off stream, and that provides flexibility in the system for us to increase water supply, improve water quality, and enhance ecosystem restoration.

Feinstein's plan calls on the state and local governments to fund at least 50 percent of projects whether they are tailored toward ecosystem restoration or water storage.

Study Faults Government For lack of CWA Enforcement

More than one in four (26 percent) of the nation's largest industrial, municipal, and federal facilities were in serious violation of the Clean Water Act at least once during a recent 15-month period, according to a report released by U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). Polluters' Playground: How the Government Permits Pollution describes shortcomings in the monitoring of water pollution and efforts to deter polluters, at the same time that the Bush Administration has proposed cutting the EPA's budget for enforcement.

"It is outrageous that the Bush Administration is proposing to slash enforcement budgets when more than one in four polluting facilities are breaking the law," said U.S. PIRG Environmental Advocate Richard Caplan. "We need clean water now, and we have to start by requiring polluters to obey the law."

U.S. PIRG analyzed the behavior of major facilities nationwide by reviewing violations of the Clean Water Act between October of 1998 and December of 1999, recorded in the U.S. EPA's Permit Compliance System database, obtained by U.S. PIRG under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Major findings of the report include:

The ten states with the greatest number of major facilities in Significant Non-Compliance (SNC) were Texas, Ohio, New York, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Florida, Missouri, and Indiana.
The ten states with the highest percentage of major facilities in SNC were Utah, Tennessee, Ohio, Vermont, Missouri, Oklahoma, Alabama, Rhode Island, Nebraska, and Indiana.
159 major facilities were in SNC during the entire 15 month period. Of the 42 industrial facilities in SNC for the entire 15 month period, EPA records indicate only one received a fine over the past five years.
To bring about consistent compliance with permits and move toward the zero-discharge goals of the Clean Water Act, U.S. PIRG recommended the following:
Set tougher penalties. Penalties should be set high enough to remove any economic incentive for polluters to break the law and to deter lawbreaking in the first place.
Allow citizens full access to the courts. Obstacles to citizen suits should be removed, including the current rules that bar citizens from suing federal facilities.
Expand the public's right to know. The public should have greater access to information about enforcement, including the requirement of submissions of comprehensive data by facilities that discharge into waterways and easy accessible of that data through online Internet searches.

"We urge Congress and the President to listen to the public's demands for clean water. The Administration's proposed cuts to the EPA's enforcement budget take us in the wrong direction at the wrong time," Caplan said.