Fw: NRDC Wins!

[Richard L Whitman <rwhitman@usgs.gov>]

Tom Anderson <std@savedunes.org>

04/04/2007 08:49 AM

To	cclay@savedunes.org
cc	cll@savedunes.org, reads@skyenet.net, water@savedunes.org, smihal763@verizon.net, steve@coffeecreekwc.org, water@savedunes.org, richard_whitman@usgs.gov
Subject	NRDC Wins!

Court Rules EPA Violated Clean Water
Act This week, a federal district court ruled Environmental Protection
Agency violated the Clean Water Act by failing to publish either new or
revised water quality criteria for bacteria by the October 2005 deadline
set by Congress (Natural Resources Defense Council v. Johnson, C.D. Cal.,
No. 06-cv-4843, 3/21/07). Judge Phillips Gutierrez of the U.S. District
Court for the Central District of California said EPA violated its mandatory
duty of revising or setting new water quality criteria for waterborne pathogens
under Sections 104(v) and 304(a)(9) of the Clean Water Act at 33 U.S.C.
§1314(a)(9).  The district court also set April 2 as the date for
NRDC and EPA to meet and discuss how the agency would go about setting
new pathogen criteria or revising existing ones.  At issue was NRDC's
allegation EPA violated the Beaches Environmental Assessment, Cleanup,
and Health Act of 2000 by failing to set new water quality criteria for
bacteria or to revise the existing standards by Oct. 10, 2005, as required
by Congress.  NRDC alleged that EPA was making states use "obsolete"
water quality criteria for bacteria to set standards.  EPA was required
under the BEACH Act to study human illnesses caused by polluted beach water
by October 2003 and to promulgate revised water quality criteria by October
2005. Instead of revising the criteria, however, EPA has been recommending
that states use the 1986 bacteria criteria to develop water quality standards.
The ruling is available at http://docs.nrdc.org/water/wat_07032301A.pdf.