Protecting Clean Water
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
The Mississippi River Watershed is the second largest watershed in the world supporting an extensive variety of habitats including wetland, open-water, and floodplain, many of which are national wildlife refuges. Pollutants enter this system from agricultural, metropolitan and industrial areas and have a serious impact on all living creatures, and can negatively affect the use of water for drinking, household needs, recreation, fishing, transportation and commerce.
ELPC is currently working on several initiatives to protect clean water in the Midwest. Learn how you can help keep our water clean.
Iowa Water Quality Standards and Permitting
For the past several years, ELPC has been working with our colleagues and partners in Iowa (including the Iowa Environmental Council, Sierra Club, and the Hawkeye Fly Fishing Association) to enforce the Clean Water Act and improve the quality of Iowa’s rivers, lakes and streams. Although we have made significant improvements, there is much work to be done. In general, Iowa does not begin to implement the Clean Water Act properly and regularly issues permits that are not protective of Iowa recreation, aquatic life or downstream waters. Working with the Iowa Environmental Council, Sierra Club and Hawkeye Flyfishing Council, we have begun to take action against the three biggest problems in the Iowa Department of Natural Resources program.
Antidegradation Standards
ELPC has worked extensively to implement and enforce the Clean Water Act’s important antidegradation requirements. These rules, intended to “keep clean water clean,” have been seriously underutilized by states in the Midwest. In 2006, ELPC persuaded Illinois to adopt antidegradation rules that are among the strongest in the nation. We are now working with partners in Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky, and several other states to adopt similarly strong rules. In September 2008, ELPC attorneys prevailed in a federal lawsuit challenging U.S. EPA for its approval of weak antidegradation standards in Kentucky. This case will provide important precedent for our efforts to promote strong antidegradation standards throughout the region.
Working to Develop Strong Water Quality Standards for Nutrients
Nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus are causing major water quality problems in the Midwest and a “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. These pollutants come primarily fertilizer and other agricultural runoff as well as wastewater treatment plants that discharge into our rivers. ELPC has worked at the federal, regional and state level to develop protective numeric nutrient standards for the Mississippi River basin. Working with the Clean Water Network and NRDC, we have written and met with U.S. EPA headquarters regarding phosphorus controls that could be established immediately and urged U.S. EPA to work more aggressively to cause adoption of nitrogen standards to protect the Gulf of Mexico.
Evaluating State Non-Point Source Pollution Programs throughout the Midwest
Although the Clean Water Act does an adequate job regulating individual “point-sources” of pollution (e.g. discharges from sewage treatment plants and industry), it does not cover agricultural runoff and other “non-point” discharges. While every state in the Midwest has at least some non-point pollution control programs, the details and effectiveness of such participation varies by state. Therefore, ELPC is working to evaluate each state’s effort at addressing non-point source pollution, with the goal of identifying and recommending the most effective strategies.
Learn more about our efforts around the Midwest to protect clean water.
Tags: Cleaner Rivers and Lakes
