[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 216 (Friday, November 7, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60448-60449]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-29592]
[[Page 60447]]
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Part IV
Environmental Protection Agency
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Department of Agriculture
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Office of the Secretary
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Clean Water Act; Vice President's Initiatives; Notice
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 216 / Friday, November 7, 1997 /
Notices
[[Page 60448]]
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Office of the Secretary
[FRL-5919-6]
Clean Water Act; Vice President's Initiatives
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture.
ACTION: Notice of Vice President Gore's Clean Water Initiatives.
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SUMMARY: On October 18, 1997, Vice President Gore announced a set of
Clean Water Initiatives to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Clean
Water Act. In a memorandum to Heads of Departments and Agencies, he
asked the Secretary of Agriculture (USDA) and the Administrator of the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to convene this effort.
Despite many successes in cleaning up our Nation's waters,
significant challenges remain. For example, harmful organisms in our
waters and polluted runoff continue to pose threats to human health,
fish and wildlife. To help solve these problems, the Vice President
directed Federal agencies to develop a comprehensive Action Plan within
120 days to improve and strengthen water pollution control efforts
across the county. He also identified a number of specific initiatives
to achieve these major goals: enhanced protection of public health;
more effective control of polluted runoff; and increased community
participation in local watershed management. Agencies will also
emphasize high levels of public participation and access to
information, innovative solutions, and cooperative relationships with
private parties and landowners.
USDA, EPA and other Federal agencies have begun work on the Action
Plan. Since public involvement is an important part of this effort, the
agencies are planning a series of constituent meetings to discuss the
Action Plan. An Internet website is being created to provide the public
with information about this effort.
Groups or individuals may submit comments on actions that agencies
should undertake in response to the Vice President's memorandum and are
encouraged to specifically identify their topical interests and suggest
ways to involve the public in development of the Action Plan. In
addition to public involvement in the Action Plan, each element of the
Plan will have substantial, and in some cases formal, opportunities for
public involvement in the specific agency actions. The Plan will not
determine the outcome of regulations, but will identify the overall
goals of agency actions and the vision of how they fit together.
DATES: Written submissions should be addressed to one of the persons
listed directly below on or before December 8, 1997.
ADDRESSES: Comments should be sent to Denise Coleman, Room 6032S, PO
Box 2890, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. 20013 or
Robert Goo, Assessment and Watershed Protection Division (4503F), U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, 401 M Street SW., Washington, D.C.
20460.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Denise Coleman, USDA; (202) 720-1845
or Robert Goo at (202) 260-7025.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The full text of Vice President Gore's Clean
Water Initiative, October 18, 1997, Memorandum follows.
Dated: November 4, 1997.
Robert Perciasepe,
Assistant Administrator, Office of Water, Environmental Protection
Agency.
James R. Lyons,
Under Secretary, Natural Resources and Environment, Department of
Agriculture.
October 18, 1997.
Memorandum for Heads of Departments and Agencies
From the Vice President
Subject: Clean Water Initiatives
The twenty-fifth anniversary of the Clean Water Act presents an
opportunity for all Americans to celebrate the successes of the Act
to date, and to recognize the vital role of clean water in
protecting public health and securing our economic future. In 25
years, the Clean Water Act has stopped billions of pounds of
pollution from flowing into our rivers, lakes, and streams, and
doubled the number of waterways that are safe for swimming and
fishing. Rivers once polluted enough to catch fire, lakes once
devoid of life, and streams once used as open sewers are now
restored centerpieces of healthy communities because of the Clean
Water Act.
This is also an appropriate occasion to recognize that, despite
significant progress, the challenge for all of us in protecting our
Nation's waters remains unfinished. The health of our people
continues to be threatened by exposure to harmful organisms in our
waters; consumption of fish from many of our waters presents a
threat to the most vulnerable among us; polluted runoff has for too
long eluded control under conventional regulatory approaches.
Communities need Federal help and partnership to protect water
quality on a community-led, watershed basis, rather than through
piecemeal steps. It is incumbent on all Federal agencies to respond
to these challenges in a manner that honors and furthers the goals
of the Clean Water Act. Agencies must bring to these challenges a
new vision, one which ensures that the level of effort is
commensurate with the importance of clean water to the health and
well-being of every community.
I am therefore requesting that the Secretary of Agriculture and
the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in
consultation with all other affected agencies develop a
comprehensive Action Plan that builds on the Administration's clean
water successes over the past five years and addresses three major
goals: enhanced protection from public health threats posed by water
pollution; more effective control of polluted runoff; and promotion
of water quality protection on a watershed basis. This Action Plan
will be informed by the following principles:
Agencies will develop cooperative approaches that
promote coordination and reduce duplication among Federal, State and
local agencies and Tribal governments wherever possible.
Agencies will ensure participation of community groups
and the public to the maximum extent practicable. Such participation
will include community and public access to information, to protect
the public's right-to-know about water quality issues.
Agencies will emphasize innovative approaches to
pollution control, including, where appropriate, incentives, market-
based mechanisms, and cooperative partnerships with landowners and
other private parties.
The Action Plan developed according to these principles will
encompass all appropriate regulatory, incentive, compliance,
enforcement, and budgetary steps, and will include, at a minimum,
the following elements:
Protecting Public Health
1. EPA and the Department of Commerce (acting through the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)) will
identify steps to reduce the need for fish consumption advisories,
giving particular attention to toxics that affect fetal and
childhood development. The Action Plan will also identify steps to
ensure protection of children from exposure to harmful organisms on
our beaches and other recreational waters.
2. EPA will identify the major sources of nitrogen and
phosphorous in our waters, and identify actions to address these
sources. In particular, EPA will accelerate water quality criteria
for waters in every geographic region in the country. Specifically,
EPA will establish a schedule so that EPA and the states are
implementing a criteria system for nitrogen and phosphorous runoff
for lakes, rivers, and estuaries by the year 2000.
Preventing Polluted Runoff
3. EPA will expedite new standards for targeted problems of
polluted runoff.
Specifically, EPA will expedite its new strategy from animal
feeding operations that produce polluted runoff, and include in that
strategy specific commitments to revise outdated regulations. EPA
will ensure that final regulations for polluted runoff from storm
water are in place by March 1, 1999.
[[Page 60449]]
4. Prior to or as part of the Action Plan, the Department of
Agriculture (USDA) will notify the states through the Federal
Register of the availability of the Conservation Reserve Enhancement
Program (CREP) and shall provide further guidance to the states in
presenting proposals. USDA will work with states to help them
develop proposals leading to as many agreements as practicable that
will address critical water quality, soil erosion, and fish and
wildlife habitat needs, including habitat needed for threatened and
endangered species. USDA will work with states to identify whether
such agreements could be used to protect important habitat for fish
in the Pacific Northwest, California, and other areas where
significant natural resources may be affected by diminished water
quality. While this further guidance is being developed, USDA will
continue to work expeditiously with states to complete pending
proposals by states to protect water quality and habitat through
CREP.
5. NOAA and EPA will have in place all 29 state Coastal Nonpoint
Pollution Control Programs by June 30, 1998, beginning with the
highest priority watersheds. NOAA and EPA will work with States to
ensure that these programs are fully approved by December 31, 1999.
6. NOAA and EPA will develop an action-oriented strategy to
comprehensively address coastal nonpoint source pollution. This
strategy will be based on the full array of NOAA's and EPA's
scientific, educational, technical assistance, and management
programs. This strategy will be coordinated with other Federal
agencies and coastal states and territories, and will consider the
needs of approved state Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Programs.
7. The Action Plan will include a strategy for ensuring that
lands and facilities owned, managed, or controlled by Federal
agencies are national models and laboratories for effective
watershed planning and control of polluted runoff. The Action plan
will include a strategy to ensure that Federal actions, programs,
and activities do not contribute to the sprawl or other forms of
development that may exacerbate the problem of polluted runoff or
other water quality problems.
8. The Action Plan will include a strategy to achieve a net gain
of as many as 100,000 acres of wetlands by the year 2005. USDA and
the Department of the Interior (DOI) will ensure that they use
common data and reference points in determining whether these goals
have been met. Consistent with USDA's Buffer Initiative, the Action
Plan will achieve a goal of 2 million miles of buffer strips
protecting waters from agricultural runoff by the year 2002.
Ensuring Community-Based Watershed Management
9. The Action Plan will include a strategy for enhancing
partnerships with state and local agencies, Tribal governments, and
local communities in protecting water quality on a watershed basis.
10. USDA will develop a strategy for ensuring that agricultural
producers in 1000 critical rural watersheds have the technical and
financial assistance they need to abate polluted runoff and to
comply with applicable standards, using programs and authorities
like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, the Conservation
Reserve Program, the Wetlands Reserve Program, and others. This
effort will be undertaken in a manner consistent with USDA's goals
for watershed and basin-level planning. This effort also will give
preference to states that have mechanisms in place to ensure
effective cooperation among Federal, state, and local agencies as
well as with local landowners and the public.
11. USDA, in consultation with DOI, will develop a strategy to
ensure proper stewardship of federally managed watersheds, and to
restore watersheds adversely affected by past management practices.
The strategy will address the need to address runoff from abandoned
mines, to eliminate unnecessary roads, to improve road maintenance,
and to ensure coordinated watershed management strategies regardless
of jurisdictional boundaries. Working with local landowners, USDA
will develop a strategy for addressing nonpoint source pollution in
those watersheds that consist of a mix of public private lands, to
make more effective use of resources to address high-priority
restoration efforts in these watersheds.
All elements of the Action Plan will provide for appropriate
input from state and local agencies, Tribal governments, Members of
Congress, and the public. EPA and USDA will consider, in developing
the Plan, what further steps are needed to establish a national
consensus on the elements of the Plan.
The Action Plan will be submitted to me within one-hundred
twenty (120) days, following review by the Council on Environmental
Quality and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The
Administrator of EPA and the Secretary of Agriculture, and all
affected agencies, will ensure that all elements of the Action Plan
are coordinated with OMB and consistent with the President's budget.
All independent regulatory agencies are requested to assist in
the implementation of this memorandum.
[This memorandum is not intended to create any right, benefit, or
trust responsibility, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law
or equity by a party against the United States, its agencies or
instrumentalities, or any other person.]
This memorandum will be published in the Federal Register.
[FR Doc. 97-29592 Filed 11-6-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P
