Trump to sign order reviewing EPA water rule

[CaseyJones]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/28/politics/donald-trump-water-epa/


President Donald Trump will sign Tuesday an executive order requiring the Environmental Protection Agency to review Obama-era water regulations to make sure they are not harming the economy, according to an internal EPA email obtained by CNN.

The order -- which is currently in draft form and subject to change before Tuesday afternoon, when Trump is expected to sign it -- addresses the "Waters of the United States" rule, which applies to 60% of the bodies of water in the US.

The regulation was created under the Clean Water Act in the early 1970s and essentially gives the federal government authority over major bodies of water, rivers, streams and wetlands, allowing the federal government to police these waterways to ensure they are pollution free.

Trump's executive order requires the EPA and other applicable departments to review the regulation and ensure it promotes economic growth and minimizes uncertainty when it comes to regulation. The order then requires agencies to rescind or revise aspects of the regulation that are incompatible with the new policy guidance.
By reviewing the regulation, the administration can begin to pick it apart and weaken it.

Critics, including some in the farming community, have complained that the rule restricted how they could use their land and had a negative economic impact on their business.

[Ender]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/28/politics/donald-trump-water-epa/

Feds should have no jurisdiction over water, especially on private lands-

Unless, of course, a pipeline's involved. ;)

[Zippyjuan]

Less safe drinking water for civilians. More bombs to drop on foreigners. Making America Great Again!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/12/15/toxic-water-soaring-lead-levels-in-childrens-blood-create-state-of-emergency-in-flint-mich/?utm_term=.534994d5276d


In Flint, Mich., there’s so much lead in children’s blood that a state of emergency is declared

For months, worried parents in Flint, Mich., arrived at their pediatricians’ offices in droves. Holding a toddler by the hand or an infant in their arms, they all have the same question: Are their children being poisoned?

To find out, all it takes is a prick of the finger, a small letting of blood. If tests come back positive, the potentially severe consequences are far more difficult to discern.

That’s how lead works. It leaves its mark quietly, with a virtually invisible trail. But years later, when a child shows signs of a learning disability or behavioral issues, lead’s prior presence in the bloodstream suddenly becomes inescapable.

According to the World Health Organization, “lead affects children’s brain development resulting in reduced intelligence quotient (IQ), behavioral changes such as shortening of attention span and increased antisocial behavior, and reduced educational attainment. Lead exposure also causes anemia, hypertension, renal impairment, immunotoxicity and toxicity to the reproductive organs. The neurological and behavioral effects of lead are believed to be irreversible.”

The Hurley Medical Center, in Flint, released a study in September that confirmed what many Flint parents had feared for over a year: The proportion of infants and children with above-average levels of lead in their blood has nearly doubled since the city switched from the Detroit water system to using the Flint River as its water source, in 2014.

The crisis reached a nadir Monday night, when Flint Mayor Karen Weaver declared a state of emergency.




https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20170206/morrisania/elevated-lead-levels-ps-41-is-158


Lead Levels in Bronx School's Water 16 Times Higher Than in Flint, Michigan

THE BRONX — Lead levels in the water of an Olinville school tested 16 times higher than Flint, Michigan, according to a letter to parents from the city Department of Education.

P.S. 41 at 3352 Olinville Ave. and I.S. 158 in Morrisania were both found to have levels of lead higher than the EPA's "action level" threshold of 15 parts per billion (ppb), according to letters the Department of Education sent out to families and staff at the schools.

Lead levels in the water at P.S. 41 were particularly high, with five faucets testing above 100 ppb.

A cold water faucet in a fifth floor bathroom for adults tested 442 ppb, the most toxic level in the school.

At I.S. 158, high levels of lead in the water were found in three classrooms, the kitchen, the boys locker room, the weight room and the second floor girls bathroom, according to a notice shared with DNAinfo by a teacher at the school.

[phill4paul]

Less safe drinking water for civilians. More bombs to drop on foreigners. Making America Great Again!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/12/15/toxic-water-soaring-lead-levels-in-childrens-blood-create-state-of-emergency-in-flint-mich/?utm_term=.534994d5276d




https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20170206/morrisania/elevated-lead-levels-ps-41-is-158

Never would have happened without an EPA! Thank goodness we have one.

[Zippyjuan]

Never would have happened without an EPA! Thank goodness we have one.

China has fewer pollution restrictions. I bet they have the cleanest water in the world.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/12/four-fifths-of-chinas-water-from-wells-unsafe-because-of-pollution


Four-fifths of China's water from wells 'unsafe because of pollution

More than 80% of China’s underground water drawn from relatively shallow wells used by farms, factories and mostly rural households is unsafe for drinking because of pollution, a government report says.

The Water Resources Ministry study posted to its website on Tuesday analysed samples drawn in January from 2,103 wells used for monitoring in the country’s major eastern flatland watersheds.

The ministry said that of those samples, 32.9% were classed as suitable only for industrial and agricultural use, while 47.3% were unfit for human consumption of any type. None were considered pristine, although water in wells in the Beijing area was rated better overall than elsewhere in the northeast.



http://fortune.com/2016/11/18/china-smog-water-pollution/


China’s Smog May Be Letting Up But Water Is Worsening


https://fortunedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/464950984.jpg?w=1100&quality=85

China is making progress in battling the damaging smog that can shroud its big cities, but in many areas - from parts of the giant Yangtze river to the coalfields of Inner Mongolia - its water pollution is getting worse.

Despite commitments to crack down on polluters, the quality of water in rivers, lakes and reservoirs in several regions has deteriorated significantly, according to inspection teams reporting back to the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP).

In documents published this week, inspectors found that a fifth of the water in the Yangtze's feeder rivers in one province was unusable, and thousands of tonnes of raw sewage were being deposited into one river in northeastern Ningxia each day.

[Swordsmyth]

Less safe drinking water for civilians. More bombs to drop on foreigners. Making America Great Again!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/12/15/toxic-water-soaring-lead-levels-in-childrens-blood-create-state-of-emergency-in-flint-mich/?utm_term=.534994d5276d





https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20170206/morrisania/elevated-lead-levels-ps-41-is-158


How about less Federal Overreach, and if there is a problem let the States deal with it.

[phill4paul]

China has fewer pollution restrictions. I bet they have the cleanest water in the world.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/12/four-fifths-of-chinas-water-from-wells-unsafe-because-of-pollution



http://fortune.com/2016/11/18/china-smog-water-pollution/

Apples and bowling balls. Nice try though. So care to comment on what a great job the EPA did in Michigan?

[showpan]

It has nothing to do with our health, It's all about making billions

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mining-alaska-trump-idUSKBN14A287

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/18/epa-blocks-alaska-mine-project

[Zippyjuan]

https://wfpl.org/as-state-loosens-oversight-coal-ash-contaminates-central-kentucky-waterway/


As State Loosens Oversight, Coal Ash Contaminates Central Kentucky Waterway


February 28, 2017
As Kentucky regulators and utilities are pushing to loosen regulations on the state’s coal ash ponds and landfills, more pollution problems are emerging at one of the sites in central Kentucky.

Over the past six years, documents show contaminated water including arsenic and selenium leached from the ash pond at the E.W. Brown Power Station into groundwater and directly into Herrington Lake, near Danville. Despite remedial measures taken by Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities, the pollution persists.

Now, fish tissue sampling has revealed the coal ash pond’s selenium runoff has poisoned aquatic life in the lake.

Meanwhile, the same regulators who monitor the runoff from that plant have been working extensively with the utility industry — including a group that represents LG&E and KU — to weaken state regulations governing coal ash.

Experts say that under the new regulations, the pollution at the E.W. Brown plant might never have been detected.

“Individually and cumulatively, [these coal ash sites] add up to a demonstration that this waste stream is problematic enough, and the past management of these wastes by this industrial sector is questionable enough, that you really don’t have any case for allowing a new generation of these sites to be created without sufficient oversight,” said environmental attorney Tom FitzGerald.

The Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet declined an interview request. In response to emailed questions, cabinet spokesman John Mura disagreed with FitzGerald’s characterization of the new regulations.

“The Cabinet certainly agrees that it is essential for the state to be involved in the oversight of operation, closure and corrective actions implemented at [coal ash] impoundments,” Mura said. “This is a key reason why Kentucky is proposing to adopt the federal [coal ash] rules to ensure that it is involved in these key actions.”

The problem
Herrington Lake is a 2,300-acre manmade lake near Danville. It’s used for recreation activities, like boating and fishing. And it’s pretty. For 72-year-old retired economist Jim Porter, the lake is the reason he and his wife moved back to Kentucky 11 years ago. They live in a subdivision built around the Old Bridge Golf Club.

“The appeal of Old Bridge to us was not the golf. Neither of us are golfers,” Porter said. “The appeal of Old Bridge was that it’s on Herrington Lake, which is a beautiful lake here in central Kentucky.”

Porter’s property backs up to the lake. It’s peaceful, and Porter said he loves living close to it. But besides serving as a drinking water source for nearby communities and attracting the wildlife Porter watches from his back porch, Herrington Lake is also used as a repository for pollution from the Brown power plant.

LG&E and KU are legally allowed to do this through Kentucky Pollution Discharge Elimination System — or KPDES — permits. But in 2014, when the plant was already undergoing remedial measures for groundwater contamination, regulators found more unpermitted discharges. The coal ash pond was still leaching toxic chemicals into nearby groundwater and directly into Herrington Lake.

In February 2014, Division of Waste Management inspectors were at the Brown plant to examine underground springs — a step in support of the plant’s permit application to build a dry landfill on the capped pond. They shot video of a torrent of orange water rushing down a hill and into one of the lake’s inlets. Water tests performed later showed arsenic levels that were 98 times the maximum allowable level, and levels of iron and manganese were also high.


More at link.

[Suzanimal]

http://i.imgur.com/S4czWZMm.png