ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Environmental Integrity Project, on behalf of the Waterkeeper Alliance and Center for Biological Diversity, sent the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a notice of intent to sue May 2. Among the Waterkeeper Alliance are 16 waterkeepers — advocates for various waterways — in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
The organizations accuse the EPA of failing to provide Congress with regular comprehensive reports on the state of the nation’s waterways as required under the Clean Water Act.
“The Clean Water Act can’t live up to its promise if EPA won’t report on polluted waterways, as required, or update its standards to keep pace with technology,” Meg Parish, senior attorney at the Environmental Integrity Project, said in a press release.
In the notice, the groups assert that the Clean Water Act requires the EPA to provide a thorough analysis to Congress on the condition of the nation’s waterbodies at least once every two years. The groups contend that the EPA hasn’t done so since 2017.
In a separate letter sent to EPA Administrator Michael Regan on May 2, 49 environmental groups from across the nation underscored concerns about the reports.
They also claimed that the EPA has not updated industrial pollution control standards as technology has improved, which is required under the Clean Water Act. For example, the EPA stated that municipal and industrial wastewater treatment systems can “commonly achieve” total nitrogen concentrations — a form of nutrient pollution in wastewater — at 8 milligrams per liter. But the Environmental Integrity Project identified 31 sites nationwide that exceeded that threshold, even though it isn’t a legal violation.
One of those sites is the DuPont Spruance site in Chesterfield County, VA, along the James River. The facility was built in 1929 to make the synthetic fiber Rayon. Between 2022 and 2023, the facility discharged over 214,000 pounds of total nitrogen and more than 16,000 pounds of total phosphorous.
Many groups in the Chesapeake region, like Blue Water Baltimore, Chesapeake Legal Alliance, Friends of the Rappahannock and Waterkeepers Chesapeake, signed the letter.
The Bay Journal contacted the EPA for comment and has not yet received a response.
Tell Congress to fully fund the EPA and provide the staff needed to carry out its mission.
Don’t they know, government agencies don’t follow the laws, they make up their own “regulations” to fit ‘their’ agendas.
Good luck with that