January 14, 2011

Pete Silva, assistant administrator for water at the Environmental Protection Agency, is stepping down and will to return to California to be with his family. He will stay with the agency until February.

Nancy Stoner, EPA’s deputy assistant administrator, will serve as the assistant administrator until the position is officially filled. Silva’s successor will have to be confirmed by the Senate.

Both parties are in the final stages of finalizing their committee rosters for the new Congress. The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees the Safe Drinking Water Act, is one of the first to take shape.

Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) will be chair of the committee, and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) will be ranking member. The committee will be made up of 31 Republicans and 23 Democrats. 
 

EPA requested water systems nationwide to start monitoring for chromium 6 in a January, 11 announcement. This new guidance was issued outside of the normal SDWA process; chromium 6 is not on the list of unregulated contaminants requiring monitoring or the contaminant candidate list. There is a federal drinking water standard, known as an MCL, for total chromium that all water systems comply with.

A recent response letter by the National Committee on Levee Safety to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation responding to concerns raised by the Bureau over the canals are levees issue is attracting attention by members of congress. Congressional briefings and meetings on the issue, sponsored by the Family Farm Alliance (FFA), ACWA and National Water Resources Association (NWRA) have resulted in preparations for oversight hearings and opposition letters.

California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment proposed lowering the public health goal for perchlorate to 1 ppb on Jan. 7. The current PHG of 6 ppb was set in 2004.

Today, January 14, The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) issued its final guidance to federal agencies on how they should handle mitigation/monitoring of environmental impacts of federal projects under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).  Many of the provisions are similar to existing provisions within CEQA in California.