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Show Me the Money…

Posted on January 31, 2007 | Filed Under Healthy Waters

Katherine Baer, Healthy Waters Director
Act for Healthy Rivers

Start raiding your piggy banks for clean water. A recent article in the Washington Post estimated that it will cost $28 billion to clean up the Chesapeake Bay - of that $6 billion is needed to repair and upgrade sewage treatment plants. Nationally we have a funding gap of $390 billion over the next 20 years to cover the country’s wastewater infrastructure funding needs. Without this increased investment water quality is at risk of returning to mid-1970s pollution levels. Much of our wastewater infrastructure is suffering from neglect as it reaches the end of its natural life cycle - it has gotten so bad that the American Society of Civil Engineers has rated our wastewater systems with a D- grade.

Meanwhile, the federal government has cut the federal funds available through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) from 1.35 billion five years ago to a proposed $688 million in the FY07 budget. For comparison, we spent $500 million in four months to fix sewer and water infrastructure in Baghdad alone.

There is some reason for hope in reversing the federal funding decline - Rep. Oberstar (D-MN) recently introduced legislation to reauthorize the SRF at higher funding levels and the bill is on the fast track in the House, although its fate in the Senate is less clear.

Hopefully, this bill can also be revised to better attain clean water by including more incentives for communities to use “green infrastructure” such as rain gardens and buffer areas, along with the typical hard engineering fixes to get better bang for the buck. Many cities are already taking this path and using such low impact development techniques to reduce stormwater and the resulting sewer overflows, and this trend should be encouraged. SRF funds are also sometimes misused to subsidize sprawl, creating even more problems and this should be prohibited.

So, as the Beatles like to say, money can’t buy me love… but surely it can buy us some sewer pipes that don’t leak - and I’m all for that!

River Policy Week in Review

Posted on January 23, 2007 | Filed Under Policy Review

Eileen Fretz, Government Affairs Assistant
Government Affairs Week in Review

Clean Energy Act Passes the House
On Thursday the House of Representatives voted 264 - 163 to pass H.R. 6, the Clean Energy Act of 2007. The bill repeals certain oil and gas industry tax breaks and shifts about $14 billion in revenue to a new Strategic Energy Efficiency and Renewables Reserve fund. The bill leaves the question of how the money would be spent to future legislation. Energy legislation is not expected to reach the Senate floor until later this year.

Water Infrastructure Hearing
The Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held its first hearing of the 110^th Congress on Friday. The subcommittee discussed the lack of funding to upgrade the nation’s water infrastructure, and the need to restore cuts to EPA’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund. Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) stated she hoped to move legislation renewing the fund to the House floor before the President’s Day district work period. Chairwoman Johnson’s other stated priorities for the subcommittee include legislation to reauthorize appropriations for EPA’s Combined Sewer Overflow grant program, a pilot program for alternative sources of water, and the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA).

New Water Bills Introduced
Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Rep. McGovern (D-MA) recently introduced H.R. 415, a bill to designate segments of the Taunton River in Massachusetts as Wild and Scenic. The bill has been referred to the Committee on Natural Resources. Companion legislation has not yet been introduced in the Senate.

Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) introduced legislation addressing water conservation and dam safety. The Oregon Water Resources Management Act, H.R. 495, consists of four water conservation and dam safety projects in the central, eastern and southern parts of the state. The bill passed the House late last year, but the Senate did not act before the end of the session. Rep. Walden also recently introduced the Tumalo Water Conservation Act, H.R. 496, which would provide federal assistance to the Tumalo Irrigation District’s water conservation project in the Middle Deschutes Basin.

Toward a cleaner Anacostia River

Posted on January 17, 2007 | Filed Under Clean Water, Healthy Waters

Rob Perks, Senior Director of Outreach & Communications
Act for Healthy Rivers

I’d planned to write about something else today until I read this morning’s newspaper. The opinion page was inundated by readers responding to last week’s front-page article on the pollution-plagued blighted jewel that is the Anacostia River. (I ‘slogged’ about this last week)

A letter from Michele Leonardi correctly noted that untreated human waste is a public health threat that needs to be fixed now, not on the 20-year time frame laid out by the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority. “We are not a Third World country,” Ms. Leonardi pointed out. “It is incomprehensible that in 2007 a major waterway in the nation’s capital would still be contaminated with raw sewage.”

She offered an excellent suggestion - that the bulk of tax revenue from the new businesses, the new baseball stadium and all other development underway near the river should go directly toward bringing the city’s sorry sewer system up to the standards of a civilized nation. Great idea!

It’s important to recognize the integral connection between development, increased stormwater runoff and the sewer overflows in the District - moderate to heavy rain is what triggers the combined sewer system to overflow. So while treating sewage is crucial, reducing runoff is also a must. Fortunately, there is a move for new development (like the stadium) to be more “green“, using low impact development techniques that reduce storm water and sewer overflows.

Which brings us to some good news for the Anacostia River. According to another story in the Washington Post, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling that would set and enforce Clean Water Act pollution limits for the Anacostia. Fecal bacteria, trash and toxic chemicals make the Anacostia one of the most unhealthy streams in the region. The court’s decision means that the EPA must put “daily” caps on the amounts of pollutants dumped into the river - instead of the annual or seasonal pollution limited preferred by the agency.

This is a huge victory in the long-running battle over the raw sewage running into the river. The District’s antiquated sewer system currently dumps out raw sewage-laden rainwater during storms. Environmental attorneys successfully argued that these “overflows” are so severe that an annual pollution limit is simply not adequate.

Already, EPA and D.C. sewer officials are claiming (and complaining) that the ruling will delay and divert cleanup plans and money for the river. It could certainly derail their dubious plan to dig massive tunnels under the city, where water can be stored during a storm and afterward pumped to a sewage treatment plant for treatment. But at least the river will benefit from more protection, not less with the daily pollution limits. After all, they don’t call it “total maximum daily load” for nothing!

Your Water On Drugs…

Posted on January 17, 2007 | Filed Under Clean Water, Healthy Waters

Will Hewes, Conservation Associate
Act for Healthy Rivers

We’ve all heard about the adverse effect the aging baby-boomers are having on social security - but you may not have heard about their effect on our waters! An article in NRDC’s On Earth points out that an aging population is drastically increasing the number of drugs prescribed each year and Americans already fill more than three billion prescriptions annually. Although these substances are good for our health, up to 90% of these drugs can leave our bodies unchanged. These endocrine disrupting compounds are then discharged to local rivers via sewage discharge. Other sources of these compounds include veterinary use and flushing of unused drugs down the toilet.

Not surprisingly, the U.S. Geological Survey has found organic chemicals including pharmaceuticals at low levels in streams across the country and determined that wastewater treatment plants are a significant source of contaminants such as antibiotics. These drugs are now making a recognized mark on aquatic life. Pharmaceuticals and other endocrine disruptors from wastewater have been shown to cause “intersex” fish in Colorado. In the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers endocrine disruptors are also the suspected cause of intersex fish.

It is unclear that these compounds have an effect on human health via drinking water, but as Potomac Riverkeeper Ed Merrifield pointed out in his testimony to the House Government Reform Committee in 2006, these fish are canaries in the coal mine and we just don’t know how low levels of these chemicals could effect human health. I’d have to agree that given the gender-bending power of pharmaceuticals on fish, seems like reduction and removal of pharmaceuticals in our water supply is a wise idea.

Anacostia River: A Sewer Runs Through It

Posted on January 15, 2007 | Filed Under Clean Water, Healthy Waters

Rob Perks, Senior Director of Outreach & Communications
Act for Healthy Rivers

Washington, D.C.’s riverfront is set to undergo rejuvenation spurred by construction of a brand new baseball stadium for the Nationals. City officials are banking on the Anacostia River to serve as the scenic centerpiece of massive redevelopment. Ringed by a necklace of new stadiums, office buildings, condominiums and parks, this crown jewel is expected to shine as a new hub of urban life.

But as an excellent story in the Washington Post points out, “that bright vision is hard to square with the Anacostia of the present.” The Anacostia of today is a “wrecked river” -choked with sediment, trash, toxic pollution, and human waste dumped out by the District’s sewer system. Thomas Arrasmith, head of the Anacostia Watershed Citizens Advisory Committee, said it best: “You cannot have a world-class city with a sewer running through it.”

Like many big cities, the District’s antiquated sewer system was designed more than a century ago to dump out raw sewage during moderate rainstorms. That still happens - more than 2 billion gallons of untreated sewage flows directly into the Anacostia every year. Partly as a result, the river has 21 times the EPA-recommended level of fecal coliform bacteria.

The WashPost story quotes James Connolly, executive director of the Anacostia Watershed Society, calling the river a toilet. “It’s going to be stinky, especially after a rain,” he warns Nats fans who will be catching games at the soon-to-be-built waterfront ballpark. “You’ll stand up in the seventh-inning stretch and get a big whiff of sewage.”

The D.C. Water and Sewer Authority says it’s working to minimize this problem with a plan to dig big tunnels under the city where water can be stored during a rainstorm, then treated to remove sewage. But completely fixing the problem will take close to 20 years and $2 billion. Other solutions like green infrastructure (e.g. green roofs, rain gardens) should also be used more aggressively to reduce sewer overflows. A model by Casey Trees showed that a significant increase in green roofs in the District would reduce the number of sewage overflows to Rock Creek by 40%.

More money is certainly needed, along with aggressive action to address the myriad pollution problems plaguing the Anacostia River. Meantime, D.C. residents (and visitors alike) at least ought to be made aware that when it rains, sewage pours into the river - putting public health at risk.

Otherwise, the Anacostia will continue to be the jewel of denial.

Here’s to your health!

Posted on January 12, 2007 | Filed Under Clean Water, Healthy Waters

Katherine Baer, Healthy Waters Director
Act for Healthy Rivers

Sewage treatment is required for good reason - the pathogens (or disease causing agents in sewage) cause people to get sick. But although sewage has always been around, sewage treatment has only fairly recently become the norm.- Back in the 1800s big cities did not treat human waste at all - and just shipped it out to a river or lake for dilution.

Light bulbs started to go off when people drinking this sewage-laden water started getting cholera and typhoid. After tiring of their citizens getting sick, Chicago reversed the flow of their river away from their drinking water source - Lake Michigan - and sent the maladies downstream toward St. Louis, leading to one of the most famous lawsuits in the development of environmental law.

Nowadays the Clean Water Act requires wastewater treatment. But there are still some serious health effects from both the untreated sewage from spills and overflows and from pathogens that make it through the treatment process. The largest outbreak in U.S. history occurred in 1993 when improperly treated sewage made 403,000 residents of Milwaukee ill after the parasite cryptosporidium infected the drinking water supply.

Every year, millions of people still get sick from contact with untreated sewage - the number is probably even higher given that people don’t usually report mild stomach illness and ear infections after swimming in contaminated water. Think on this one - raw sewage makes up to 1.5 million people sick every year at beaches in just two counties in California, so the nationally reported numbers may be just the tip of the iceberg as reporting and monitoring are inconsistent.

What’s more, while viruses, bacteria and parasites cause a lot of short-term illnesses with symptoms that clear up after a few days or weeks, in some cases these pathogens are responsible for serious, chronic conditions such as organ damage or failure, arthritis or cancer. Children, the elderly and the immunocompromised are particularly vulnerable to the more severe effects of sewage.

Sure, these days we’re certainly better off than we were - we no longer have major cholera and typhoid outbreaks - but there are still major health risks posed by sewage pollution. At the very least we need better recreational water quality standards and monitoring and treatment for a wider range of pathogens. We also need to know when there is sewage in our waters so we can avoid contact.

River Policy Week in Review

Posted on January 9, 2007 | Filed Under Policy Review

Eileen Fretz, Government Affairs Assistant
Government Affairs Week in Review

The 110^th Congress was officially sworn in on Thursday, January 4^th. The first order of business in the House was passing a package of rules. The package calls for greater disclosure of Member pet projects or earmarks and additional rules place restrictions on Member’s travel and gifts from lobbyists. Also included in the package were procedural name changes to certain committees.

The Resources Committee, chaired by Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV), will once again be known as the Natural Resources Committee and the Science Committee, chaired by Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN) will return to its former name, the Science and Technology Committee. The Government Reform Committee, chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) will now be known as the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

In addition to a change in name, the House Natural Resources Committee will undergo other structural changes. Committee Chairman Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) is eliminating the National Parks, Recreation and Public Lands Subcommittee and adding a subcommittee on Insular Affairs. Jurisdiction over the National Parks Service will be combined with the former Forests and Forests Health Subcommittee to form the National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee. The Fisheries and Oceans Subcommittee has been renamed the Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans Subcommittee and the Indian and Insular Affairs Subcommittee is now only Indian Affairs.

Also last week Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) introduced the first Wild & Scenic Rivers bills of the 110^th Congress. The identical bills, S. 86 and H.R. 199, seek to designate Fossil Creek as Arizona’s second Wild and Scenic River. Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) is a co-sponsor of the Senate bill.

Fossil Creek in AZ could be our next Wild and Scenic River

Posted on January 4, 2007 | Filed Under Government Affairs, River Heritage, Wild and Scenic

Quinn McKew, Director of River Heritage
River Heritage, Go Wild!

Yesterday, Senator McCain and Rep. Renzi reintroduced legislation to designation Fossil Creek in Arizona as Wild and Scenic. This is the first legislation out of the gate for our 40 x 40 Challenge in the new Congress and demonstrates serious commitment to this legislation on their part! For your reference, the bill numbers are HR 199 and S 86.

Fossil Creek is a true success story. This gorgeous stream out the in Arizona desert was dammed for almost 100 years. About a decade ago, American Rivers led a coalition of tribes, recreationists and environmentalists in a bid to get the aging dam removed and return Fossil Creek to its full flow. Now, we are leading the campaign to designate this stream a National Wild and Scenic River, protecting it from future dams and other threats to this sensitive and rare ecosystem.

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