Dems quiz EPA on Clean Water Act enforcement

Pointing to an internal memo, House Democrats on Monday said the Environmental Protection Agency is not doing enough to enforce the Clean Water Act.

In a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, Reps. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) and Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), say they have “grave concerns over the current status of implementation of the Clean Water Act” and demand that the agency provide Congress with information about its enforcement process.

{mosads}The letter is a reaction to a March 4 EPA memo, which stated that it has become more difficult to enforce the Clean Water Act after the Supreme Court’s split decision in Rapanos v. United States.

“We have obtained an internal document from the [EPA] that indicates that the Supreme Court’s decision in Rapanos v. United States, combined with guidance to implement the decision issued jointly by EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers, has resulted in significant adverse impacts to the clean water enforcement program,” the lawmakers wrote.

The memo, written by EPA Assistant Administrator Granta Nakayama, claimed that about 500 cases involving the Clean Water Act between July 2006 and December 2007 were negatively affected by uncertainty created by the court’s decision.

Oberstar is the chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Clean Water Act, and Waxman chairs the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Both panels are studying the EPA’s enforcement.

To understand the problems the EPA faces, Oberstar and Waxman are asking the agency to submit within two weeks all unredacted communication between EPA regional offices and the agency’s headquarters on the issue, communication within each regional office and any other related communication.