EPA revokes waiver for Arkansas to approve water permits

[BlueToTheBone]

http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2013/08/30/epa-revokes-waiver-for-arkansas-to-approve-water-permits

Legislation has consequences. And these were predicted by environmentalists during the legislative session.

You may remember when Republican Rep. Andy Davis of Little Rock, looking out for industries he works for, passed legislation to alter permit requirements for discharging minerals into streams. The bill effectively removed the presumption that any waterway was a potential source of drinking water and thus needed pollution protection. Environmentalists said the bill would make it easier to pollute waterways. Davis countered that standards were impractical.

Theresa Marks, director of the Department of Environmental Quality, opposed the bill.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has now reacted, as many expected it would do. The agency's water protection division in Dallas has written the state to say the EPA is terminating its waiver of a right to review certain water discharge permits in the state because of Act 954, which took effect Aug. 16. The EPA wants all permit applications, draft permits, final permits, fact sheets and other material related to discharging facilities to be sent to the EPA for review. The agency said it looked forward to assuring that Arkansas complies with the Clean Water Act. If the state won't enforce it properly, the EPA will.

snip

Today the EPA took the first step, removing the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality's ability to issue many water quality permits without first obtaining EPA approval. EPA also denied a permit modification requested by Tyson Foods that would have allowed it to discharge more pollutants from its Waldron facility based on Act 954.

This is not the final word on the matter though, the Department of Environmental Quality and the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission are still considering substantial changes that weaken our water quality protections in accordance with Act 954. Additionally, it is still undetermined how EPA will respond to the portions of Act 954 which we believe illegally weaken water quality standards and the drinking water designated use.

long an important article. But this is good news indeed.