June 11, 2010

Today, the Senate voted 47-53 on the motion to proceed past debate on Senator Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) resolution of disapproval (S J Res 26). The resolution would have overruled EPA’s green house gas endangerment finding. The resolution needed a simple majority of 51 votes to proceed.

Earlier this week, the White House threatened to veto the resolution if it passed.

In an action published in the Federal Register on June 8, the U.S. EPA adopted a final rule allowing twelve alternative methods for testing drinking water contaminants.  

The new methods do not replace previously approved methods, but instead are added as additional methods considered equally effective.  Some of the new methods improve on existing ones in that they, among other things, eliminate some labor intensive sample preparation steps and reduce the need for solvents and potentially hazardous materials in the testing process.

The Senate Energy & Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water & Power received testimony on pending legislation before the Subcommittee, including S. 2891, the Hoover Dam Allocation Act and H.R. 4252, a bill directing the Secretary of Interior to conduct a study of water resources in the Rialto-Colton Basin in California on Wednesday, June 9.

HooverPower

A June 8 memo from White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag directed all non-security Executive Branch agencies to reduce their budgets by five percent for FY 2012.

The memo called on agencies to “restructure their operations strategically” rather than to reduce spending across the board.  Eliminating low-priority programs and activities, reorganizing processes, and focusing on “high-priority performance” goals are all suggestions that were listed.

According to the U.S. EPA’s latest Clean Watershed Needs Survey (CWNS) nearly $300 billion is needed to manage U.S. clean water infrastructure over the next twenty years.  The 2008 report was released on June 1, 2010.

The CWNS, released every four years, determines the capital need over the following twenty years for “publicly owned wastewater pipes and treatment facilities; combined sewer overflow (CSO) correction; and stormwater management.”

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) held a meeting May 25-26 to receive public comments on the changes to the Principles and Guidelines, an effort being undertaken by the White House based Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). 

InsideEPA reported that many of the comments were critical of the draft document’s vagueness and the emphasis it places on non-structural projects.   CEQ administered public comment periods took place July 1-17, 2009 and December 9, 2009-April 5, 2010. 

Today, the House of Representatives agreed to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 4349, the Hoover Power Allocation Act of 2010. The legislation extends the federal government’s authority to allocate power generated by Hoover Dam for another 50 years. The legislation also adjusts allocation schedules and creates a fourth schedule, schedule D, which includes new entities now eligible to receive federal government power allocations.

Congresswoman Grace Napolitano (D-Sante Fe Springs) sponsored the legislation along with 43 bipartisan co-sponsors.

The U.S. EPA today released a new draft (NPDES) permit that is designed to decrease the amount of pesticides discharged into waterways. This permit is known as the Pesticides General Permit (PGP).The proposed permit requires all operators to reduce pesticide discharges by using the lowest effective amount of pesticide, prevent leaks and spills, calibrate equipment and monitor for and report adverse incidents. Additional controls, such as integrated pest management practices, are built into the permit for operators who exceed an annual treatment area threshold.