Clean Water Act; Clean Water Action Plan

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

Department of Agriculture

[FRL-5985-6]

Clean Water Act; Clean Water Action Plan

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture.

ACTION: Notice of availability of clean water action plan.

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SUMMARY: In his 1998 State of the Union Address, President Clinton

announced a major new Clean Water Initiative to speed the restoration

of the nation's rivers, lakes, and coastal waters. This new initiative

aims to achieve clean water by strengthening public health protection,

targeting community-based watershed protection efforts at high priority

areas, and providing communities with new resources to control polluted

runoff.

On October 18, 1997, the 25th anniversary of the Clean Water Act,

Vice President Gore directed the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and

the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to work with other Federal

agencies and the public to prepare an aggressive Action Plan to meet

the promise of clean, safe water for all Americans. The Action Plan

forms the core of President Clinton's Clean Water Initiative in which

he proposed $568 million in new resources in his Fiscal Year 1999

budget to carry it out. The Action Plan builds on the solid foundation

of existing clean water programs and proposes new actions to strengthen

efforts to restore and protect water resources.

In implementing the Action Plan, the federal government will:

support locally led partnerships that include a broad array of

watershed partners, including federal and state agencies, tribes,

communities, businesses, and citizens to meet clean water and public

health goals; increase financial and technical assistance to states,

tribes, local governments, farmers, and others; and help states and

tribes restore and sustain the health of aquatic systems on a watershed

basis.

ADDRESSES: The Clean Water Action Plan is available for viewing on the

Internet at

http://www.nhq.nrcs.usda.gov/cleanwater/ or

http://www.epa.gov/cleanwater/.

Copies of the Clean Water Action Plan may be obtained from EPA's

National Center for Environmental Publications and Information, 1-800-

490-9198 (toll free), P.O. Box 42419, Cincinnati, OH 45242; (513) 489-

8695 (fax). Ask for EPA-840-R-98-001. Copies may also be obtained from

Douglas Wilson, USDA-NRCS, Conservation Communications Staff, Room

0054--South Building, P.O. Box 2890, Washington, D.C. 20013-2890, or by

fax at (202) 720-6009.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ben Ficks, U.S. EPA, Office of

Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds, 401 M Street, S.W. (4501F),

Washington, D.C. 20460; fax: 202-260-2529; email

[email protected]; or Douglas Wilson, USDA-NRCS Conservation

Communications Staff, Room 0054--South Building P.O. Box 2890,

Washington, D.C. 20013-2890; fax: 202-720-6009.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Clean Water Action Plan Overview

I. Clean Water--The Road Ahead

Over the past quarter century, America has made tremendous strides

in cleaning up its rivers, lakes, and coastal waters. In 1972, the

Potomac River was too dirty to swim in, Lake Erie was dying, and the

Cuyahoga River was so polluted it burst into flames. Many rivers and

beaches were little more than open sewers. The improvement in the

health of the nation's waters is a direct result of a concerted effort

to enhance stewardship of natural resources and to implement the

environmental provisions of federal, state, tribal and local laws. In

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

pollution from fouling the nation's water, doubling the number of

waterways safe for fishing and swimming. Today, rivers, lakes, and

coasts are thriving centers of healthy communities.

Despite tremendous progress, 40 percent of the nation's waterways

assessed by states are still unsafe for fishing and swimming. Pollution

from factories and sewage treatment plants, soil erosion, and wetland

losses have been dramatically reduced. But runoff from city streets,

rural areas, and other sources continues to degrade the environment and

puts drinking water at risk. Fish in many waters still contain

dangerous levels of mercury,

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polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and other toxic contaminants.

After 25 years of progress, the nation's clean water program is at

a crossroads. Implementation of the existing programs will not stop

serious new threats to public health, living resources, and the

nation's waterways, particularly from polluted runoff. These programs

lack the strength, resources and framework to finish the job of

restoring rivers, lakes and coastal areas. To fulfill the original goal

of the Clean Water Act--``fishable and swimmable'' water for every

American--the nation must chart a new course to address the pollution

problems of the next generation.

In his 1998 State of the Union Address, President Clinton announced

a major new Clean Water initiative to speed the restoration of the

nation's precious waterways. This new initiative aims to achieve clean

water by strengthening public health protection, targeting community-

based watershed protection efforts at high priority areas, and

providing communities with new resources to control polluted runoff.

On October 18, 1997, the 25th anniversary of the Clean Water Act,

Vice-President Gore directed USDA and EPA to work with other federal

agencies and the public to prepare an aggressive Action Plan to meet

the promise of clean, safe water for all Americans. This Action Plan

forms the core of President Clinton's Clean Water Initiative in which

he proposed $568 million in new resources in his FY 1999 budget to

carry it out. The Action Plan builds on the solid foundation of

existing clean water programs and proposes new action to strengthen

efforts to restore and protect water resources. In implementing the

Action Plan, the federal government will support locally led

partnerships that include a broad array of federal agencies, states,

tribes, communities, businesses, and citizens to meet clean water and

public health goals; increase financial and technical assistance to

states, tribes, local governments, farmers and others; and help states

and tribes restore and sustain the health of aquatic systems on a

watershed basis.

II. Four Tools for Clean Water

Federal, state, tribal, and local governments have many tools they

can use to clean up and protect water resources. Regulation, economic

incentives, technical assistance research, education, and accurate

information all have a role to play in meeting clean water goals. The

Action Plan is built around four key tools to achieve clean water

goals.

A Watershed Approach

The Action Plan envisions a new, collaborative effort by federal,

state, tribal, and local governments; the public; and the private

sector to restore and sustain the health of watersheds in the nation.

The watershed approach is the key to setting priorities and taking

action to clean up rivers, lakes, and coastal waters.

Strong Federal and State Standards

The Action Plan calls for federal, state, and tribal agencies to

revise standards where needed and make existing programs more

effective. Effective standards are key to protecting public health,

preventing polluted runoff, and ensuring accountability.

Natural Resource Stewardship

Most of the land in the nation's watersheds is cropland, pasture,

rangeland, or forests, and most of the water that ends up in rivers,

lakes, and coastal waters falls on these lands first. Clean water

depends on the conservation and stewardship of these natural resources.

The Action Plan calls on federal natural resource and conservation

agencies to apply their collective resources and technical expertise to

state and local watershed restoration and protection.

Informed Citizens and Officials

Clear, accurate, and timely information is the foundation of a

sound and accountable water quality program. Informed citizens and

officials make better decisions about their watersheds. The Action Plan

calls on federal agencies to improve the information available to the

public, governments, and others about the health of their watersheds

and the safety of their beaches, drinking water, and fish.

A. A Watershed Approach--The Key to the Future

The Action Plan proposes a new collaborative effort by state,

tribal, federal, and local governments, the private sector and the

public to restore those watersheds not meeting clean water, natural

resource, and public health goals and to sustain healthy conditions in

other watersheds.

For the past 25 years, most water pollution control efforts relied

on broadly applied national programs that reduced water pollution from

individual sources, such as discharges from sewage treatment plants and

factories, and from polluted runoff. Today, there is growing

recognition that clean water strategies built on this foundation and

tailored to specific watershed conditions are the key to the future.

Why Watersheds?

Clean water is the product of a healthy watershed--a watershed in

which urban, agricultural, rangelands, forest lands, and all other

parts of the landscape are well-managed to prevent pollution. Focusing

on the whole watershed helps strike the best balance among efforts to

control point source pollution and polluted runoff, and protect

drinking water sources and sensitive natural resources such as

wetlands. A watershed focus also helps identify the most cost-effective

pollution control strategies to meet clean water goals.

Working at the watershed level encourages the public to get

involved in efforts to restore and protect their water resources and is

the foundation for building strong clean water partnerships. The

watershed approach is the best way to bring state, tribal, federal, and

local programs together to more effectively and efficiently clean up

and protect waters. It is also the key to greater accountability and

progress toward clean water goals.

Key Elements of the Watershed Approach

The Action Plan proposes a watershed approach built on several key

elements.

1. Unified Watershed Assessments. States, tribes, and other federal

agencies currently set priorities for watershed action in many

different ways. For example, state water quality agencies are

developing lists of impaired water bodies, defining source water

protection areas for drinking water, identifying coastal protection

priorities, and defining priority areas for agricultural assistance

programs. Similarly, federal, state and tribal natural resource

agencies set their priorities for watershed restoration and protection

in various ways to meet their mandates for natural resource

conservation. These processes are designed to meet valid objectives,

but too often opportunities to work together to meet common goals are

overlooked.

The Action Plan creates a strategic opportunity for states and

tribes, in cooperation with federal land and resource managers on

federal lands to take the lead in unifying these various existing

efforts and leveraging scarce resources to advance the pace of progress

toward clean water. As a number of states and tribes have demonstrated,

they can meet existing requirements efficiently and develop more

coordinated and comprehensive priorities on a watershed basis.

Unified watershed assessments are a vehicle to identify: watersheds

that will

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be targeted to receive significant new resources from the President's

FY 1999 budget and beyond to clean up waters that are not meeting water

quality goals; pristine or sensitive watersheds on federal lands where

core federal and state programs can be brought together to prevent

degradation of water quality; and threatened watersheds that need an

extra measure of protection and attention.

2. Watershed Restoration Action Strategies. The Action Plan

encourages states and tribes to work with local communities, the

public, and federal environmental, natural resource, and land

management agencies to develop strategies to restore watersheds that

are not meeting clean water and natural resource goals. Watershed

Restoration Action Strategies will spell out the most important causes

of water pollution and resource degradation, detail the actions that

all parties need to take to solve those problems, and set milestones by

which to measure progress. Funds made available to federal agencies

through the FY 1999 Clean Water and Watershed Restoration Budget

Initiative will be used to help states implement these strategies.

3. Watershed Pollution Prevention. Protecting pristine or sensitive

waters and taking preventive action when clean water is threatened by

new activities in the watershed can be the most cost-effective approach

to meeting clean water goals. The Action Plan encourages states,

tribal, and federal agencies to bring core programs and existing

resources together to support watershed pollution prevention strategies

to keep clean waters clean.

4. Watershed Assistance Grants. Federal agencies will provide small

grants to local organizations that want to take a leadership role in

building local efforts to restore and protect watersheds. These grants

will ensure that local communities and stakeholders can effectively

engage in the process of setting goals and devising solutions to

restore their watersheds.

B. Strong Federal and State Standards

The Action Plan calls on federal, state, and tribal governments to

strengthen existing programs to support an accelerated effort to attack

the nation's remaining water quality problems. Federal, state, and

tribal standards for water quality and polluted runoff are key tools

for protecting public health, preventing polluted runoff, and ensuring

accountability. Some of the specific actions called for in the Action

Plan are identified below.

1. Improve Assurance that Fish and Shellfish are Safe to Eat.

Federal agencies will work with states and tribes to expand programs to

reduce contaminants that can make locally caught fish and shellfish

unsafe to eat, particularly mercury and other persistent, bio-

accumulative toxic pollutants, and to ensure that the public gets clear

notice of fish consumption risks.

2. Ensure Safe Beaches. Federal, state, and local governments will

work to improve the capacity to monitor water quality at beaches,

develop new standards, and use new technologies such as the Internet to

report public health risks to recreational swimmers.

3. Expand Control of Storm Water Runoff. EPA will publish final

Phase II storm water regulations for smaller cities and construction

sites in 1999. EPA will also work with its partners to make sure that

existing storm water control requirements for large urban and

industrial areas are implemented.

4. Improve State and Tribal Enforceable Authorities to Address

Polluted Runoff. Federal agencies will work with states and tribes to

promote the establishment of state and tribal enforceable authorities

to ensure the implementation of polluted runoff controls by the year

2000.

5. Define Nutrient Reduction Goals. EPA will establish by the year

2000 numeric criteria for nutrients (i.e., nitrogen and phosphorus)

that reflect the different types of water bodies (e.g., lakes, rivers,

and estuaries) and different ecoregions of the country and will assist

states and tribes in adopting numeric water quality standards based on

these criteria.

6. Reduce Pollution from Animal Feeding Operations. EPA will

publish and, after public comment, implement an Animal Feeding

Operation Strategy for important and necessary actions on standards and

permits. In addition, by November 1998, EPA and USDA will jointly

develop a broad, unified national strategy to minimize the

environmental and public health impacts of Animal Feeding Operations.

C. Natural Resource Stewardship

Nearly 70 percent of the United States, exclusive of Alaska, is

held in private ownership by millions of individuals. Fifty percent, or

907 million acres, is owned by farmers, ranchers, and their families.

Another 400 million acres are federal lands. Most of the rainfall in

the country falls on these lands before it enters rivers, lakes and

coastal waters. Effective management of these croplands, pastures,

forests, wetlands, rangelands, and other resources is key to keeping

clean water clean and restoring watersheds where water quality is

impaired.

The Action Plan commits all federal natural resource conservation

and environmental agencies to focus their expertise and resources to

support the watershed approach described above. In addition, these

agencies will work with states, tribes, and others to enhance critical

natural resources essential to clean water.

1. Federal Land Stewardship. More than 800 million acres of the

United States, including Alaska, is federal land. These lands contain

an immense diversity and wealth of natural resources, including

significant sources of drinking water and public recreation

opportunities.

By 1999, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and USDA will

take the lead in developing a Unified Federal Policy to enhance

watershed management for the protection of water quality and the health

of aquatic systems on federal lands and for federal resource

management. Federal land managers will improve water quality protection

for over 2,000 miles of roads and trails each year through 2005 and

decommission 5,000 miles each year by 2002. Federal land managers will

also accelerate the cleanup rate of watersheds affected by abandoned

mines and will implement an accelerated riparian stewardship program to

improve or restore 25,000 miles of stream corridors by 2005.

2. Protect and Restore Wetlands. The Action Plan sets a goal of

attaining a net increase of 100,000 wetland acres per year by the year

2005. This goal will be achieved by ensuring that existing wetland

programs continue to slow the rate of wetland losses, improving federal

restoration programs, and by expanding incentives to landowners to

restore wetlands.

3. Protect Coastal Waters. Federal agencies, led by the National

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), will work in partnership

to improve the monitoring of coastal waters, expand research of

emerging problems like Pfiesteria, amend Fishery Management Plans to

address water quality issues, and ensure the implementation of strong

programs to reduce polluted runoff to coastal waters.

4. Provide Incentives for Private Land Stewardship. The Action Plan

relies on a substantial increase in the technical and financial

assistance available to private landowners as the primary means of

accelerating progress toward reducing polluted runoff from

agricultural, range, and forest lands.

USDA, working with federal, state, tribal, and private partners,

will

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establish by 2002 two million miles of conservation buffers to reduce

polluted runoff and protect watersheds, direct new funding for the

Environmental Quality Incentives Program to support watershed

restoration, and develop as many new agreements with states as

practicable to use the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program to

improve watersheds. The Plan also envisions new and innovative methods

to provide incentives for private landowners to implement pollution

prevention plans, including risk management protection for adoption of

new pollution prevention technologies and market recognition for

producers that meet environmental goals.

In addition, DOI will expand its existing Partners for Wildlife

Program, which restores degraded fish and wildlife habitats and

improves water quality through partnerships with landowners. The

program provides technical and financial assistance, and gives priority

to threatened and endangered species.

D. Informed Citizens and Officials

Effective management of water resources requires reliable

information about water quality conditions and new tools to communicate

information to the public. Federal agencies, led by the U.S. Geological

Survey (USGS), will work with states and tribes to improve monitoring

and assessment of water quality, focusing on nutrients and related

pollutants. Federal agencies will also work with states and tribes to

develop and use state-of-the-art systems, such as EPA's Index of

Watershed Indicators on the Internet, to communicate meaningful

information to the public about water quality conditions in their

communities.

III. Clean Water and Watershed Restoration Budget Initiative

To support the new and expanded efforts to restore and protect the

nation's waters as proposed in the Clean Water Action Plan, the

President's FY 1999 budget proposes a Clean Water and Watershed

Restoration Budget Initiative. The funding provided in this budget

initiative will dramatically increase federal financial support for

clean water programs in FY 1999 and beyond. Specifically, the Clean

Water and Watershed Restoration Budget Initiative will: increase direct

support to states and tribes to carry out a watershed approach to clean

water; increase technical and financial assistance to farmers,

ranchers, and foresters to reduce polluted runoff and enhance the

natural resources on their lands; fund watershed assistance programs

and grants to engage local communities and citizens in leadership roles

in restoring their watersheds; accelerate progress in addressing

critical water quality problems on federal lands, including those

related to roads, abandoned mines, riparian areas, and rangelands;

expand and coordinate water quality monitoring programs; and increase

efforts to restore nationally significant watersheds, such as the

Florida Everglades and the San Francisco Bay-Delta.

IV. A Continuing Commitment to Clean Water

The publication of the Action Plan is just the beginning of a long-

term effort. Many of the proposed actions will provide for later public

review and comment and federal agencies are committed to working

closely with states, tribes, and others to ensure successful

implementation of specific actions.

In addition, regular reports will keep the public apprised of

progress and remaining challenges. By the end of the year 2000 and

periodically thereafter, status reports on progress in implementing

watershed restoration plans and related programs will be provided to

the President, the nation's governors, tribal leaders, and the public.

Dated: March 18, 1998.

Robert Perciasepe,

Assistant Administrator, Office of Water, Environmental Protection

Agency.

James R. Lyons,

Under Secretary, Natural Resources and Environment, Department of

Agriculture.

[FR Doc. 98-7641 Filed 3-23-98; 8:45 am]

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