Clean Water: It should be our Legacy
by Karen HarderWhat is this Clean Water Legacy issue all about? It's gotten great media coverage, the legislature is all a-buzz, and clean water is certainly a good idea. Let's talk a bit about an issue that's terribly current, but that has also been around since the Clean Water Act was created in 1970.
When the Clean Water Act was passed, its supporting regulations assured us that "No permit may be issued to a new source or a new discharger, if the discharge from its construction or operation will cause or contribute to the violation of water quality standards" (40 CFR 122.4 (i)). Pretty simple, yet terribly complex in its application right now.
We are currently dealing with a state in which very little monitoring of our waters has been done. Of the monitoring that has been done, indications of pollution from mercury are everywhere and other pollutants such as phosphorus, nitrogen, chloride, and suspended solids are very widespread. Obviously, pollutants have been discharged in violation of water quality standards for many years. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is starting to crack down and Minnesota has to do something right away.
But it's not that easy. For years, the state agencies have been allowing this pollution to occur. Under the excuse of not enough money:
- General permits allowing huge numbers of facilities to operate have been allowed without site-specific requirements and with little or no oversight;
- Individual permits that are issued to facilities for wastewater discharges are not consistently enforced;
- Environmental reviews of impacts from new development is avoided or given rubber stamps of approval; and,
- Whole programs that are protective of water quality have been suspended, weakened, or eliminated.
After years of under-funding, rubber-stamping, looking the other way, "streamlining," and "providing balance," the state has found itself in a pickle. Our waters are polluted, the fish cannot be eaten, beaches are being closed, and the feds are coming after us.
The proposed Clean Water Legacy bill is an attempt to solve this problem.
This bill would provide new sources of funding for cleaning up our polluted waters. That's good, but where would the funding coming from? At the time of this writing, the majority of new funding would come from residents with septic tanks and sewer connections. Many of these people already pay property taxes, income taxes, water fees, wastewater fees, storm water utility fees, and fees to their counties and watershed organizations for the purpose of controlling pollution. So, the public has paid and will pay again. Not the polluters.
And what about pollution prevention? What about those general and individual permits, environmental reviews, and water quality protection programs that have been suspended, weakened, or eliminated? These reductions of regulatory control benefit those who pollute and will likely not be reinvigorated by the new clean-up program. The result is continued environmental damage by polluters that will be cleaned up using funding procured from the general public.
Sierra Club supports the intent of the Clean Water Legacy bill to the extent that it attempts to provide support for cleaning up our polluted waters. Several polluter pays mechanisms have been offered as suggestions for alternatives that could help make this happen, and this we encourage. Water Committee has also been very actively working to improve existing programs that prevent pollution from occurring at the outset. This, we feel, is the ounce of prevention that should not have been discarded, and for which now the public is being asked to pay the pound for cure.
Karen Harder can be contacted at or (612) 824-4136.