Nobody could have foreseen this!
Foretelling a new environmental battle between state and federal regulators, Attorney General Greg Abbott on Monday demanded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency back down from a proposal to expand the definition of federal waters to include seasonal and rain-dependent waterways.
The proposal “is without adequate scientific and economic justification and, if finalized, would erode private property rights and have devastating effects on the landowners of Texas,” he wrote as part of a public comment period on the proposal, threatening to sue if it’s not withdrawn.
EPA officials say the proposal would stiffen penalties for polluting such waterways. More than 11 million Texans, including many in Central Texas, get drinking water from sources that depend, in part, on the intermittent streams.
“It’s important to protect the whole network of streams that flow into rivers and oceans,” said Ellen Gilinsky, a senior adviser for water at the federal agency. “This rule ensures clean waters for Texans to drink and recreate in, clean water for businesses, and clean water for farmers.”
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality spokesman Terry Clawson said the state agency is “concerned that EPA’s proposed rule expands its jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act without Congressional approval.” A spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office said it had consulted with the TCEQ before filing its letter Monday.
Hey, if you can’t count on the TCEQ to look out for your best interests, who can you count on? And who needs to worry about having a sufficient quantity of clean water in Texas?
David Foster, who heads the Texas office of the advocacy group Clean Water Action, said the state environmental agency has shown little appetite for regulating the waterways. He cited permits that had been issued by the agency to subdivisions seeking to discharge treated sewage into intermittent Hill Country creeks that feed the Barton Springs portion of the Edwards Aquifer.
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“We need a federal backstop,” Foster said. “I shudder to think how the political leadership in this state would regulate these waterways.”
I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t, which is of course the problem. Abbott’s brief is here, for those of you with a more legalistic eye than I have. I wonder if he’s recycling arguments in this case as he has in others. If so, it’s the greenest thing he’s ever done. Clean Water Action and PDiddie have more.