The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator
Lisa P. Jackson announced the agency is stepping
up its efforts on Clean Water Act enforcement. The Clean Water Action
Enforcement Plan is a first step in revamping the compliance and enforcement
program. It seeks to improve the protection of our nation’s water quality,
raise the bar in federal and state performance and enhance public transparency.
“Updating our efforts under the Clean Water Act will
promote innovative solutions for 21st century water challenges, build stronger
ties between EPA, state and local actions, and provide the transparency the
public rightfully expects,” Jackson stated.
The plan
outlines how the agency will strengthen the way it addresses the water
pollution challenges of this century. These challenges include
pollution caused by numerous, dispersed sources, such as concentrated animal
feeding operations, sewer overflows, contaminated water that flows from
industrial facilities, construction sites and runoff from urban
streets.
Elements of the plan include:
- Develop more comprehensive approaches to ensure enforcement is
targeted to the most serious violations and the most significant sources of
pollution.
- Work with states to ensure
greater consistency throughout the country with respect to compliance and water
quality. Ensure that states are issuing protective permits and taking
enforcement to achieve compliance and remove economic incentives to violate the
law.
- Use 21st century information
technology to collect, analyze and use information in new, more efficient ways
and to make that information readily accessible to the public. Better
tools will help federal and state regulators identify serious compliance
problems quickly and take prompt actions to correct them.
Last July Jackson directed EPA’s Office of Enforcement and
Compliance Assurance to develop the plan in response to data showing the
nation’s water quality is unacceptably low in many parts of the
country.
More information on the plan can be found at
http://www.epa.gov/compliance/civil/cwa/cwaenfplan.html.
