Clean Water Act; Vice President's Initiatives

SUMMARY: On October 18, 1997, Vice President Gore announced a set of

Clean Water Initiatives to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Clean

Water Act. In a memorandum to Heads of Departments and Agencies, he

asked the Secretary of Agriculture (USDA) and the Administrator of the

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to convene this effort.

Despite many successes in cleaning up our Nation's waters,

significant challenges remain. For example, harmful organisms in our

waters and polluted runoff continue to pose threats to human health,

fish and wildlife. To help solve these problems, the Vice President

directed Federal agencies to develop a comprehensive Action Plan within

120 days to improve and strengthen water pollution control efforts

across the county. He also identified a number of specific initiatives

to achieve these major goals: enhanced protection of public health;

more effective control of polluted runoff; and increased community

participation in local watershed management. Agencies will also

emphasize high levels of public participation and access to

information, innovative solutions, and cooperative relationships with

private parties and landowners.

USDA, EPA and other Federal agencies have begun work on the Action

Plan. Since public involvement is an important part of this effort, the

agencies are planning a series of constituent meetings to discuss the

Action Plan. An Internet website is being created to provide the public

with information about this effort.

Groups or individuals may submit comments on actions that agencies

should undertake in response to the Vice President's memorandum and are

encouraged to specifically identify their topical interests and suggest

ways to involve the public in development of the Action Plan. In

addition to public involvement in the Action Plan, each element of the

Plan will have substantial, and in some cases formal, opportunities for

public involvement in the specific agency actions. The Plan will not

determine the outcome of regulations, but will identify the overall

goals of agency actions and the vision of how they fit together.

DATES: Written submissions should be addressed to one of the persons

listed directly below on or before December 8, 1997.

ADDRESSES: Comments should be sent to Denise Coleman, Room 6032S, PO

Box 2890, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. 20013 or

Robert Goo, Assessment and Watershed Protection Division (4503F), U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency, 401 M Street SW., Washington, D.C.

20460.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Denise Coleman, USDA; (202) 720-1845

or Robert Goo at (202) 260-7025.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The full text of Vice President Gore's Clean

Water Initiative, October 18, 1997, Memorandum follows.

Dated: November 4, 1997.

Robert Perciasepe,

Assistant Administrator, Office of Water, Environmental Protection

Agency.

James R. Lyons,

Under Secretary, Natural Resources and Environment, Department of

Agriculture.

October 18, 1997.

Memorandum for Heads of Departments and Agencies

From the Vice President

Subject: Clean Water Initiatives

The twenty-fifth anniversary of the Clean Water Act presents an

opportunity for all Americans to celebrate the successes of the Act

to date, and to recognize the vital role of clean water in

protecting public health and securing our economic future. In 25

years, the Clean Water Act has stopped billions of pounds of

pollution from flowing into our rivers, lakes, and streams, and

doubled the number of waterways that are safe for swimming and

fishing. Rivers once polluted enough to catch fire, lakes once

devoid of life, and streams once used as open sewers are now

restored centerpieces of healthy communities because of the Clean

Water Act.

This is also an appropriate occasion to recognize that, despite

significant progress, the challenge for all of us in protecting our

Nation's waters remains unfinished. The health of our people

continues to be threatened by exposure to harmful organisms in our

waters; consumption of fish from many of our waters presents a

threat to the most vulnerable among us; polluted runoff has for too

long eluded control under conventional regulatory approaches.

Communities need Federal help and partnership to protect water

quality on a community-led, watershed basis, rather than through

piecemeal steps. It is incumbent on all Federal agencies to respond

to these challenges in a manner that honors and furthers the goals

of the Clean Water Act. Agencies must bring to these challenges a

new vision, one which ensures that the level of effort is

commensurate with the importance of clean water to the health and

well-being of every community.

I am therefore requesting that the Secretary of Agriculture and

the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in

consultation with all other affected agencies develop a

comprehensive Action Plan that builds on the Administration's clean

water successes over the past five years and addresses three major

goals: enhanced protection from public health threats posed by water

pollution; more effective control of polluted runoff; and promotion

of water quality protection on a watershed basis. This Action Plan

will be informed by the following principles:

Agencies will develop cooperative approaches that

promote coordination and reduce duplication among Federal, State and

local agencies and Tribal governments wherever possible.

Agencies will ensure participation of community groups

and the public to the maximum extent practicable. Such participation

will include community and public access to information, to protect

the public's right-to-know about water quality issues.

Agencies will emphasize innovative approaches to

pollution control, including, where appropriate, incentives, market-

based mechanisms, and cooperative partnerships with landowners and

other private parties.

The Action Plan developed according to these principles will

encompass all appropriate regulatory, incentive, compliance,

enforcement, and budgetary steps, and will include, at a minimum,

the following elements:

Protecting Public Health

1. EPA and the Department of Commerce (acting through the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)) will

identify steps to reduce the need for fish consumption advisories,

giving particular attention to toxics that affect fetal and

childhood development. The Action Plan will also identify steps to

ensure protection of children from exposure to harmful organisms on

our beaches and other recreational waters.

2. EPA will identify the major sources of nitrogen and

phosphorous in our waters, and identify actions to address these

sources. In particular, EPA will accelerate water quality criteria

for waters in every geographic region in the country. Specifically,

EPA will establish a schedule so that EPA and the states are

implementing a criteria system for nitrogen and phosphorous runoff

for lakes, rivers, and estuaries by the year 2000.

Preventing Polluted Runoff

3. EPA will expedite new standards for targeted problems of

polluted runoff.

Specifically, EPA will expedite its new strategy from animal

feeding operations that produce polluted runoff, and include in that

strategy specific commitments to revise outdated regulations. EPA

will ensure that final regulations for polluted runoff from storm

water are in place by March 1, 1999.

[[Page 60449]]

4. Prior to or as part of the Action Plan, the Department of

Agriculture (USDA) will notify the states through the Federal

Register of the availability of the Conservation Reserve Enhancement

Program (CREP) and shall provide further guidance to the states in

presenting proposals. USDA will work with states to help them

develop proposals leading to as many agreements as practicable that

will address critical water quality, soil erosion, and fish and

wildlife habitat needs, including habitat needed for threatened and

endangered species. USDA will work with states to identify whether

such agreements could be used to protect important habitat for fish

in the Pacific Northwest, California, and other areas where

significant natural resources may be affected by diminished water

quality. While this further guidance is being developed, USDA will

continue to work expeditiously with states to complete pending

proposals by states to protect water quality and habitat through

CREP.

5. NOAA and EPA will have in place all 29 state Coastal Nonpoint

Pollution Control Programs by June 30, 1998, beginning with the

highest priority watersheds. NOAA and EPA will work with States to

ensure that these programs are fully approved by December 31, 1999.

6. NOAA and EPA will develop an action-oriented strategy to

comprehensively address coastal nonpoint source pollution. This

strategy will be based on the full array of NOAA's and EPA's

scientific, educational, technical assistance, and management

programs. This strategy will be coordinated with other Federal

agencies and coastal states and territories, and will consider the

needs of approved state Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Programs.

7. The Action Plan will include a strategy for ensuring that

lands and facilities owned, managed, or controlled by Federal

agencies are national models and laboratories for effective

watershed planning and control of polluted runoff. The Action plan

will include a strategy to ensure that Federal actions, programs,

and activities do not contribute to the sprawl or other forms of

development that may exacerbate the problem of polluted runoff or

other water quality problems.

8. The Action Plan will include a strategy to achieve a net gain

of as many as 100,000 acres of wetlands by the year 2005. USDA and

the Department of the Interior (DOI) will ensure that they use

common data and reference points in determining whether these goals

have been met. Consistent with USDA's Buffer Initiative, the Action

Plan will achieve a goal of 2 million miles of buffer strips

protecting waters from agricultural runoff by the year 2002.

Ensuring Community-Based Watershed Management

9. The Action Plan will include a strategy for enhancing

partnerships with state and local agencies, Tribal governments, and

local communities in protecting water quality on a watershed basis.

10. USDA will develop a strategy for ensuring that agricultural

producers in 1000 critical rural watersheds have the technical and

financial assistance they need to abate polluted runoff and to

comply with applicable standards, using programs and authorities

like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, the Conservation

Reserve Program, the Wetlands Reserve Program, and others. This

effort will be undertaken in a manner consistent with USDA's goals

for watershed and basin-level planning. This effort also will give

preference to states that have mechanisms in place to ensure

effective cooperation among Federal, state, and local agencies as

well as with local landowners and the public.

11. USDA, in consultation with DOI, will develop a strategy to

ensure proper stewardship of federally managed watersheds, and to

restore watersheds adversely affected by past management practices.

The strategy will address the need to address runoff from abandoned

mines, to eliminate unnecessary roads, to improve road maintenance,

and to ensure coordinated watershed management strategies regardless

of jurisdictional boundaries. Working with local landowners, USDA

will develop a strategy for addressing nonpoint source pollution in

those watersheds that consist of a mix of public private lands, to

make more effective use of resources to address high-priority

restoration efforts in these watersheds.

All elements of the Action Plan will provide for appropriate

input from state and local agencies, Tribal governments, Members of

Congress, and the public. EPA and USDA will consider, in developing

the Plan, what further steps are needed to establish a national

consensus on the elements of the Plan.

The Action Plan will be submitted to me within one-hundred

twenty (120) days, following review by the Council on Environmental

Quality and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The

Administrator of EPA and the Secretary of Agriculture, and all

affected agencies, will ensure that all elements of the Action Plan

are coordinated with OMB and consistent with the President's budget.

All independent regulatory agencies are requested to assist in

the implementation of this memorandum.

[This memorandum is not intended to create any right, benefit, or

trust responsibility, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law

or equity by a party against the United States, its agencies or

instrumentalities, or any other person.]

This memorandum will be published in the Federal Register.

[FR Doc. 97-29592 Filed 11-6-97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6560-50-P