State's Water Permitting Program Isn't Cutting It
January 07, 2010Birmingham, AL- Fourteen Alabama environmental organizations,
led by the Alabama Rivers Alliance have officially filed a petition to the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to withdraw the state's authority over Alabama's water pollution
permitting program because it does not meet the minimum requirements of the
Clean Water Act.
"The water pollution permitting program administered by the Alabama
Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) is fundamentally broken and
does not meet minimum federal standards," stated Alabama Rivers Alliance
Program Director Mitch Reid. "This failure is a systemic, statewide problem.
From funding to implementation to enforcement, the failures of the current
system are leaving the citizens and environment of Alabama unprotected."
The water pollution permitting program, known as the National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) is a part of the federal Clean Water
Act. Each state is required to implement at least the minimum standards
required in the federal law.
For more than a decade, environmental and citizen organizations have worked
with state agency leaders to find ways to improve this program. When that
failed, the petitioners sought relief through the Alabama Environmental
Management Commission (EMC), a seven-member governing board of ADEM
appointed by the Governor of Alabama. Solutions have also been sought, when
necessary, in the courts.
While there have been modest gains on a few individual issues, these have
not addressed the substantial systemic failures of Alabama's water pollution
permitting program. Intervention by the Environmental Protection Agency is
the only relief left available to the environmental community to ensure the
proper actions are taken to fix this defective program
The petition initiates a legal process that is expected to engage EPA, ADEM,
and all interested parties in developing concrete solutions to reform ADEM's
water pollution permitting program.
The goal of the petitioners is for Alabama's water pollution permitting
program to meet or exceed minimum federal standards under the Clean Water
Act in order to protect human health and the environment for the citizens of
Alabama.
View the petition online: http://www.alabamarivers.org/epa-petition
About the Alabama Rivers Alliance
Formed in 1997, the Alabama Rivers Alliance is Alabama's statewide nonprofit
river-protection organization. Our mission is to protect Alabama's rivers
through water quality and quantity policy advocacy, grassroots organizing,
and the providing of information to citizens in order to achieve clean and
healthy watershed ecosystems, healthy people, strong economies, and a
functioning democratic system of government in Alabama. Read more at
www.alabamarivers.org <http://www.alabamarivers.org/> .
