EPA toughens wetlands, streams pollution rules

Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post

Thursday, April 28, 2011

The Obama administration announced Wednesday that it will impose stricter pollution controls on millions of acres of wetlands and tens of thousands of miles of streams.

The new guidelines from the Environmental Protection Agency, which will be codified in a federal regulation later this year, could prevent the dumping of mining waste and the discharge of industrial pollutants to waters that feed swimming holes and drinking water supplies.

The question of which isolated streams and wetlands qualify for protection under the Clean Water Act has been in dispute for a decade. The Supreme Court has issued two decisions, and the George W. Bush administration issued guidance in 2003 and 2008 limiting the scope of the act.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a telephone news conference with reporters that although the new rules will expand the waterways enjoying federal protection, "this is not some massive increase, as far as we can tell."

The policy change probably will affect tributaries flowing into water bodies such as the Chesapeake Bay.

Once finalized, the regulations will apply federal water quality standards to a range of waterways, including the headwaters of lakes and rivers as well as intermittent streams.

While environmentalists welcomed the decision, livestock owners and home builders have said it will impose an economic burden.

Pollution limits are topic of meeting

April 28, 2011

By John McVey - Journal staff writer (jmcvey@journal-news.net)

CHARLES TOWN - It was the consensus of county and municipal officials attending Wednesday's Jefferson County Council of Governments meeting in Charles Town to collect data showing what each jurisdiction is doing to improve water quality, proving they are complying with new regulations to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.

"We're not getting credit for what we're doing," Jefferson County Commissioner Lyn Widmyer protested. "Our best defense is to show what we're doing."

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, per a presidential executive order, has imposed very strict pollution limits on the states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The greater, eight-county Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia is in the Potomac River watershed, and the Potomac is a major tributary to the bay.

At the end of last year, in the first phase of its bay restoration program, the EPA issued new, very low amounts of nutrients, that is nitrogen and phosphorus, and sediment that can reach the bay by way of its tributaries. The EPA program targets three areas in which to reduce pollution: agriculture, wastewater treatment plants and stormwater runoff.

In Phase II of the program, local jurisdictions must implement measures to reduce nutrient and sediment pollution, showing how they are complying with the new, stringent pollution-control mandates.

A series of meetings sponsored by Region 9 Planning and Development Council and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection are scheduled to begin next month that will form the basis for Phase II of the state and local plan to comply with EPA requirements.

"Now is the time to push for local input - now is the time that we need to do it," Jefferson County Commissioner Frances Morgan said.

"If we collect data and show the methodology, we'll have solid evidence and our voice will be stronger and bigger," Charles Town Councilwoman MaryLois Gannon-Miller added.

Ranson Mayor Dave Hamill agreed that the effort has to be collective.

"Each has to tell its story, and collectively, we need to tell our story," he said. "We need to tell people exactly what we're doing, and they can look at it and say, "These guys really are doing something.'"

Jefferson County Commission President Patsy Noland, who presided over the meeting, said a plan will be formulated to implement the data collection, such as who will do the collecting, what format the data be in, where it will be stored and so on.

Jefferson County administrator Tim Boyde and Jennifer Brockman, director of Jefferson County's Department of Planning and Zoning, also attended the meeting.

No one from Bolivar, Harpers Ferry or Shepherdstown attended.

The group decided to meet again in a month

"If I Could Be Anywhere"

Jackson Browne performs "If I Could Be Anywhere" a song he started writing last April aboard Mission Blue Voyage, the Sylvia Earle-inspired trip to brainstorm ways to save the ocean. "If I could be anywhere," he sings, "anywhere right now, I would be here."

News good on . . bay funding

News good on Macy’s, bay funding

April 1, 2011

By Don Smith - Journal Editor (dsmith@journal-news.net)

MARTINSBURG - Steve Christian, executive director of the Berkeley County Development Authority and the Berkeley County Council members on Thursday heard reports on progress with Macy's development and the impact of the Chesapeake Bay Funding Bill that recently passed in the West Virginia Legislature. While both presentations came as part of regular first-quarter updates for the council, the presentations gave council members the latest news and the opportunity to thank those involved. . . .

Council members also heard good news from Curtis Keller of the Berkeley County Public Service District. Keller gave an update on the local financial impact of the Senate Bill 245 or the Chesapeake Bay Funding Bill. The bill, approved this session, sets aside $6 million per year for 30 years from surplus lottery revenues to finance bonds to fund upgrades, improvements and new construction at 13 wastewater treatment plants throughout the greater, eight-county Eastern Panhandle, which is in the Potomac River watershed. Five of the 13 plants are in Berkeley County.

Keller said the estimated construction cost for the 13 projects is $200 million. He said the approved state funding would provide 40 to 45 cents of each dollar spent on bond financing. If the construction costs can be lowered, Keller said, the grant funds could cover more.

"Depending on where those costs come in (the grant funding should be 40 to 45 cents)," Keller said. "Our target was to try and get 50 percent in grant money."

Final construction cost estimates for the 13 plants are expected by the end of the year, Keller said, adding that once the estimates are finished, the financing can be finalized.

Keller gave Sen. Herb Snyder, D-Jefferson, praise for his work on getting the legislation passed.

Improvements at the 13 plants are needed to meet new, stringent pollution-reduction mandates by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the Chesapeake Bay Restoration program.