5/15/08
By
Anthony DePalma
From
the time they are children squirming in diner
benches with their parents, New Yorkers are told to
drink their water because it is the best anywhere. A
report issued today by a number of environmental
organizations that make up the Clean Drinking Water
Coalition pretty much confirms that impression — at
least in terms of purity, cleanliness and safety.
“Over
all, we’re pleased to report that New York City
drinking water continues to be of very high
quality,” said James L. Simpson, an author of the
report and a staff lawyer with
Riverkeeper,
an environmental advocacy group devoted to the
Hudson River. “Over all, the city gets good grades
in protecting our water supplies but we also found
areas that need improvement.”
The
report (with no mention, specifically, of
the politics of tap water) is in the form of a
grade school report card. And on most areas —
including controlling waterborne disease and keeping
ducks and geese from fouling the waters — the city
was given A’s or B’s.
But
there were a number of C grades, too. Most
significantly, the city got a C-minus in two
critical areas: land purchases around the heavily
developed Croton watershed, mostly in Westchester
County, and a program to upgrade more than 100 local
sewage treatment plants. (The department says that
40 of those plants are in the Catskill Mountain
watershed and that almost all of them have been
upgraded.)
Mr.
Simpson said that the city simply has not bought
enough land around the Croton system to protect the
water there from runoff from driveways and lawns.
The Croton system accounts for only 10 percent of
the 1.1 billion gallons of water used every day by
the city, and in terms of quality, it is the least
acceptable water in the whole system. The city is
spending $2.8 billion to build a gigantic filtration
plant in the Bronx to filter water from the Croton
system. The remaining 90 percent of the city’s water
comes from the Catskill mountains and is not
filtered.
But
the substandard sewage treatment plants belonging to
small municipalities in the Catskill Mountains could
threaten the purity of the city’s water. Mr. Simpson
said the city is supposed to be providing money and
technical support to upgrade those systems but has
been falling behind on that schedule.
Mr.
Simpson said the most troubling finding in the
report was the continuing problems that the city is
having controlling turbidity in Catskill reservoirs.
Turbidity refers to cloudiness in the water caused
by sand and mud that washes into the water after
storms. Turbidity in and of itself does not pose a
health hazard — although aesthetically it’s a
turnoff. But it can interfere with disinfection
because parasites can hid behind the sediment.
The
federal Environmental Protection Agency has warned
the city that unless the turbidity issue is
controlled, New York is at risk of losing a
federally granted exemption from clean water laws
requiring drinking water supplies to be filtered.
New York is one of only five cities in the country
to be exempted from this rule.
Last
year, New York’s exemption was extended for 10
years, on the condition that drinking water continue
to meet very high standards. If the city were to
lose that exemption, it would be forced to build a
filtration plant for the remaining 90 percent of its
water at a cost estimated to be greater than $8
billion.
Besides Riverkeeper, the other groups in the
drinking water coalition that prepared the report
are the New York
Public Interest Research Group and the
Catskill
Center for Conservation and Development.
The
groups have no authority over the city’s Department
of Environmental Protection, which runs the water
system. But Mr. Simpson said that he hoped the city
would heed its findings. And the group intends to
issue a similar report every years.
Mercedes Padilla, a spokeswoman for the department,
said in a statement:
D.E.P.
is gratified that the Clean Drinking Water Coalition
has recognized the accomplishments of the City’s
active watershed protection program. New York City’s
water is among the best in the world and to keep it
that way, the City to date has spent or committed
nearly $1.5 billion to watershed protection, which
includes acquiring more than 85,000 acres of land
and upgrading wastewater treatment plants and
controlling stormwater runoff. D.E.P. has built
strong partnerships with organizations in the
watershed and with the watershed communities and
these partnerships have been a critical part of the
city’s active watershed program.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/15/citys-drinking-water-gets-good-grades-in-new-report/?ex=1211515200&en=982164632c816b6b&ei=5070&emc=eta1
April 28, 2008
NEW
YORK STATE
FAILS TO MONITOR WATER POLLUTION
PERMITS, ENDANGERS HEALTH OF STATE'S
WATERS
"Permission to
Pollute" Report Documents how DEC's
Rubber-Stamp Permit Reviews Violate
Clean Water Act
(ALBANY, NY) -
Environmental Advocates of New York
released a new report today detailing
serious flaws in the New York State
Department of Environmental
Conservation’s (DEC) oversight of
hundreds of water pollution sources
across the state. The report,
Permission to Pollute, documents how
the state’s primary environmental agency
is rubber-stamping water pollution
permits without substantive review, as
required every five years under the
federal Clean Water Act. Environmental
Advocates’ investigation also uncovered
that the public is being denied its
right to scrutinize hundreds of permits
issued by the DEC that authorize the
discharge of billions of gallons of
sewage and industrial pollution every
day.
Click here to read the report.
According to the
report, the DEC’s practice of
rubber-stamping and renewing expired
water pollution permits endangers the
health of the state’s waters. The lack
of staff at the agency is the main
driver behind the DEC’s inadequate
permit review practice; there simply
aren’t enough engineers at the agency to
scrutinize New York’s polluters and the
permits that authorize water pollution
discharges.
Permission to
Pollute is the follow-up to
Muddying the Waters: The Unknown
Consequences of New York’s Failed Water
Pollution Permitting Program, which
documented how the DEC did not review
the water pollution permits of more than
1,100 facilities for over a decade—in
clear violation of federal law.
Permission to Pollute is an in-depth
look at about 10 percent of the
pollution permits administratively
renewed and rubber-stamped by the agency
over the past 10 months beginning in
July 2007.
“The Department of
Environmental Conservation is
rubber-stamping water pollution permits
without regard to the impact of sewage
and industrial waste on New York’s
rivers, lakes and streams,” said
Katherine Nadeau, Water & Natural
Resources Program Associate,
Environmental Advocates of New York.
“But the most frightening problem our
research uncovered is what we don’t
know. Because of the Department of
Environmental Conservation’s lack of
oversight, we can’t say what’s in our
waters. And neither can the DEC.”
While the ultimate
impacts to New York’s waters are
unknown, Permission to Pollute
reveals that:
-
Some water
pollution permits in New York State
have gone without thorough review
for more than 20 years.
-
Nearly all of the
facilities reviewed for the report
had permit violations resulting in
the release of unsafe levels of
pollution.
-
The DEC’s
administrative renewal of permits
excludes the public and denies the
public its rights to scrutinize
polluting activities.
-
Records and
documents made available by the
agency in response to our requests
were often inconsistent and
incomplete.
"The state’s Department of Environmental
Conservation rubber-stamps 90 percent of
the water pollution permits issued in
New York with no substantive review,”
said Robert Moore, executive director of
Environmental Advocates of New York.
“And the agency knows that many of these
facilities are contributing to excessive
pollution problems in our streams and
lakes, some of which are also public
water supplies.”
Due to staff cuts under the Pataki
Administration, New York State has
failed to properly oversee and regulate
the pollution discharged into New York’s
waterways for almost 15 years. As the
public agency responsible for protecting
the health of the state’s waters, the
DEC’s practice of rubber-stamping water
pollution permits must end.
Environmental Advocates of New York is
calling on Governor David Paterson and
the State Legislature to make sure the
DEC has the resources it needs to
properly enforce the Clean Water Act.
|
STATES SAY WATER INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS FAR EXCEED EPA
ESTIMATES
States hard hit by shrinking federal funding for the
clean water state revolving loan fund (SRF) are seeking
out new methods of funding, with New York and
Pennsylvania gearing up to identify new funding sources
to supplement aging water infrastructure systems.
In a recent study, Wastewater Infrastructure Needs of
New York State, the state Department of
Environmental Conservation (DEC) says maintaining and
replacing wastewater infrastructure will cost $36.2
billion over the next 20 years, a figure significantly
higher than EPA�s latest estimate of $21.8 billion.
Relevant documents are available on InsideEPA.com.
A
state source explains the DEC figures are larger than
those included in EPA�s 2004 Clean Watersheds Needs
Survey (CWNS) because the state included information on
infrastructure needs not captured in EPA�s analysis.
�EPA requires robust information� including the
completion of engineering and design work for projects
to be included in the CWNS, the state source says. This
excludes estimates for replacing pipes that are over 60
years old and need to be replaced: Because states lack
money for engineering work, they �aren�t technically in
the queue,� the source says.
The state also added to its equation operations and
maintenance costs, which some people consider
controversial because �EPA and the SRF doesn�t pay for
that right now,� the source says. Additionally, the
state included wastewater treatment plants that only
have one source of power, when they are supposed to have
two; un-sewered communities; expected new total maximum
daily load (TMDL) allocations; retrofits to combined
sewer systems; enhanced water quality standards; areas
with water shortages; and the potential need to deal
with pharmaceuticals and personal care products in waste
streams in the future.
The study does not deal with the potential impacts of
climate change. �The models right now are all over the
place� as to the expected effects of climate change, the
source says, adding DEC hopes in the near future to have
better projections.
The study also makes suggestions for enhancing funding
of wastewater infrastructure through a variety of means,
given that in 2008, only 19 percent of the state�s
wastewater infrastructure needs will be met by the clean
water SRF, the report says.
The DEC recommends that Congress change federal law to
remove restrictions to non-municipal wastewater
infrastructure receiving SRF money and allow states to
provide more than the 20 percent match required for the
SRF. State legislatures usually allocate more funding
for infrastructure than gets used because of the SRF
matching restrictions, the report says.
The report also recommends that wastewater treatment
plants look to other federal grants, such as those
provided though the Agriculture Department�s Rural
Development Program loans and though the Housing & Urban
Development Department�s Small Cities Community
Development Program, which provides grants on a limited
basis.
The report also urges wastewater treatment facilities to
develop capital improvement plans, implement innovative
technology, and seek cost effective means of reducing
the burden on wastewater infrastructure by reducing the
amount of water that comes into the system through
�green� infrastructure techniques, such as using
permeable pavement, water reuse for irrigation and rain
gardens.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell (D) has
established a Sustainable Water Infrastructure Task
Force to determine how the state can maintain its
wastewater and drinking water infrastructure in light of
continued decreases to the SRF. The task force, which
met for the first time April 14, is chaired by Secretary
of Environmental Protection Kathleen McGinty and
includes representatives from a variety of utility,
municipal and academic groups.
The task force is to issue a report to the governor by
Oct. 1 that provides recommendations and financing
options to support water related services in the
governor�s 2009-10 budget proposal. Specifically, the
task force is to consider new funding options and
non-structural alternatives to capital upgrades, such as
nutrient credit trading, water reuse and conservation.
In the executive order establishing the task force,
Rendell notes that much of Pennsylvania�s core drinking
water and wastewater infrastructure has passed the
quarter-century mark, with many of the pipes more than
50 years old and some of the infrastructure exceeding
100 years in service.
The executive order also says overuse and chronic
under-funding of operations, maintenance, repair,
rehabilitation and replacement �have taken an increasing
toll on infrastructure adequacy.� Based on the latest
Pennsylvania Infrastructure Need Surveys, the state has
at least $10.9 billion in unmet drinking water
infrastructure needs and at least $7.2 billion in unmet
wastewater infrastructure needs.
Like New York, Pennsylvania says new federal regulations
and requirements will increase infrastructure needs.
The task force is to determine the actual costs of water
and wastewater services, identify the gap between that
service and infrastructure financing needs, and target
funds to address urgent needs.
WATER-17-9-3
-
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January 18, 2007
Send your comment in
now before the deadline
Hi all
Please take a moment to join the campaign to oppose
the Bush administration's efforts to weaken
protections for our water resources.
Thanks.
Ann
|
 |
| Dear Ann,
Recent
decisions by the U.S. Supreme
Court and federal agencies have
created confusion about whether
certain waters will remain
protected by the Clean Water Act
– the nation's most important
law limiting water pollution.
The Bush
administration is now taking
public comment on a policy that
would jeopardize thousands of
streams and wetlands. Tomorrow
is the deadline to weigh in!
Click here before time
runs out to urge the Bush
administration to change course
and protect all waters from
destruction and pollution.
Under
review is an Environmental
Protection Agency and Army Corps
of Engineers policy that leaves
many waters, including wetlands
and tributary streams, without
protection and even open for
destruction.
If you care about clean
water for drinking, swimming,
fish and wildlife, now is the
time to ACT!
The policy
affects 20 million acres of
"isolated" wetlands and nearly 2
million miles of streams that do
not flow year-round.
Even in the case of water bodies
that provide drinking water, the
guidance as written does not
provide protection.
Please, write a comment
to the EPA and the Army Corps of
Engineers urging them to
substantially revise their
policy. Help us send a message
to the administration that ALL
of America's lakes, streams,
creeks, rivers, and wetlands
deserve protection!
Sincerely,
Julie Waterman
Campaign Director,
SaveOurEnvironment.org
info@saveourenvironment.org
P.S. To
learn more about protecting
America's water, please visit
our campaign in support of the
Clean Water Restoration Act
http://ga3.org/campaign/cleanwateract
. This bipartisan act reaffirms
Congress' original intent in
enacting the Clean Water Act –
to protect all waters of the
U.S. from pollution!
Support Our Work -
Click here now to make a secure
online donation to help support
our efforts to protect our clean
water, clean air, endangered
species and wild places.
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