« Indiana Decisions - More on October 1st transfer list | Main | Law - Running for judge in Kentucky and Indiana »

Saturday, October 02, 2004

Environment - CWA, plus a number of air stories

"EPA cites five Ohio dairies for violations" was the headline to this story yesterday in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The report begins:

Five large dairies in northwest Ohio have been cited for violations of the Clean Water Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency confirmed yesterday.

Notices were sent to the farms almost a year after an EPA team found extensive problems with manure and wastewater management during an unannounced visit. The dairies are Olsthoorn Dairy and Gina Dairy of Van Wert County, White Gold Dairy and Schilderink Dairy of Paulding County and Manders Dairy of Wood County. The dairies have 30 days to respond.

The dairies are among 41 that Wauseon, Ohio-based Vreba-Hoff Dairy Development Corp. has built in the Midwest since 1998, including 23 in Ohio, 10 in Indiana and eight in southern Michigan. * * *

The farms cited were found to be discharging pollutants, including either manure, process wastewater or polluted stormwater, into waters that flow into Lake Erie.

They are among 10 northwest Ohio dairies the EPA inspected in November 2003. The EPA has inspected an additional 35 Midwest dairies, 10 of which were sent violation notices. The EPA will not release the names of those farms until the agency is able to confirm that the notices were received, said Arnie Lieder, enforcement officer for EPA Region 5, which comprises Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Lieder still has 20 reports to review. "We are likely to see the same types of problems we saw in the first round," he said in an e-mail.

"Inspector General Says E.P.A. Rule Aids Polluters" was the headline to this story yesterday in the NY Times. Some quotes:
In a rebuke of the Bush administration, the inspector general of the Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday that legal actions against major polluters had stalled because of the agency's decision to revise rules governing emissions at older coal-fired power plants.

The inspector general, Nikki L. Tinsley, took direct aim at the administration's revision of the New Source Review rule, one of the administration's most prominent - and vilified - environmental initiatives, saying that it makes it easier for power-plant operators to postpone or avoid adding technologies that reduce polluting emissions.

The revised rule, made final last year, has not been put in effect yet because of legal challenges. But the report concludes that just by issuing the rule, which scuttled the enforcement approach of the Clinton administration, the agency has "seriously hampered" its ability to settle cases and pursue new ones.

Ms. Tinsley's report serves as a sharp challenge to Jeffrey R. Holmstead, an assistant E.P.A. administrator who has been the agency's leading proponent of the new rule. Ms. Tinsley said in the report that her investigators found little basis for the new rule and suggested, "This is an excellent opportunity for E.P.A. to fully consider - in an open, public, and transparent manner - the environmental impact of proposed N.S.R. changes at varying levels."

Other stories on the inspector general report include this one from the Cox News Service headlined "Reaction furious to EPA report" and this one from the LA Times headlined "EPA Is Lax on Coal Power Rule, Report Says: The agency's inspector general says a Bush administration policy undercuts the government's ability to make utilities comply with clean air laws."

The Chicago Sun-Times reported yesterday, in a story headlined "Environmentalists stunned by EPA ruling," that:

Environmentalists reacted with disbelief and disappointment Thursday to an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency recommendation that the state do nothing for now about pollution from coal-fired power plants.

An IEPA report to the General Assembly said that although the plants "are a considerable source of air pollution and that reducing emissions will benefit public health," the state should not impose restrictions until their impact on health, jobs and electric rates can be analyzed.

The agency urged Gov. Blagojevich to keep pressuring the federal government for a national plan to cut plant emissions. * * *

"It's hard to believe that this agency would write this report," said Brian Urbaszewski of the American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago, adding it was "starkly inconsistent" with previous statements by Cipriano and the governor.

"We had been led to believe by the [state] agency that they were recommending a rule," said John Thompson of the Clean Air Task Force. "This reads more like something the utilities would write."

The Illinois Energy Association, an industry group, said it "strongly agrees with the IEPA recommendation that the State of Illinois wait for pending new federal clean-air standards to be adopted and avoid premature actions that could undermine the reliability of our electric power supply, force shutdowns of power plants and put Illinoisans out of work."

The Chicago Tribune reported:
Operators of coal-fired power plants in Illinois dodged tougher limits on air pollution after the Blagojevich administration agreed with industry groups that a state campaign against the oldest and dirtiest generators could drive up the cost of electricity.

As recently as a week ago, a top official at the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency said the state was likely to recommend rules that would curb emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from power plants, boost the state's battered coal industry and keep electricity rates stable. * * *

Dave Kolaz, chief of the EPA's air bureau, said last week that he was confident the agency would recommend "significant reductions" of mercury and pollutants that cause acid rain and smog. "We can do it if we do it right," he said at the time.

But industry groups lobbied the EPA to abandon state-only pollution rules. They found an ally in the Illinois Commerce Commission, the state's rate-setting agency, which argued that requiring utilities to upgrade their aging coal burners with expensive pollution controls could make them less competitive in a deregulated market where power is traded among states.

"The issue is not whether the plants will get cleaner--they will--but whether Illinois becomes a net importer of electricity," said Doug McFarlan, spokesman for Chicago-based Midwest Generation LLC, which owns two of the eight most-polluting coal plants in Illinois. "That raises concerns about reliability and costs."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 2, 2004 10:11 AM
Posted to Environmental Issues