CEEI

Center for Environmental Education and Information

P.O. Box 1778

Sun Valley, Idaho 83353

tel and fax 208-578-1557

web site: www.ceei-climate.org        e-mail:ceei@cox-internet.com

March 26, 2004

For immediate release

"EPA puts Clean Water Act on Back Burner"

says Enviro Ed group.

Sun Valley, Idaho

The Center of Environmental Education and Information (CEEI) of Sun Valley Idaho charged today that the EPA has put the Clean Water Act (CWA) on the back burner since 2000, when the Bush Administration took over. Thirty-eight states (72%) are no longer listed or they were not aware that the EPA had dropped them from the EPA web site.

In 1998, all 50 states submitted polluted stream status lists and were published on the EPA web site a year later as required by the Clean Water Act. But in year 2000 and 2002 only 14 and 12 states respectively were published. These stream reports list an average of 400 stream names per state, though many lists contain over one thousand stream names. See www.apsrs.org for detailed information. Why has the EPA withheld 38 state reports and not published them on the EPA website for two years?

"This is serious. The EPA has stated that the river and stream pollution is increasing every year. The public should have access to this information, before any restoration or prevention can be done". "The EPA has not responded to CEEI's inquiries,” said Max Casebeau CEEI's director. When asked about why the list was so small in 2001 "the EPA advised that they were waiting for the Bush Administration to get direction." Casebeau added.

The states that are non compliant or missing are cited on the CEEI web site. Nationwide, CEEI lists 23,000 streams that fall into six categories of pollution including, nutrient, sediment, high temperature, chemical, pesticide, and turbidity. These are all the streams that the states themselves have certified as meeting the criteria of the Clean Water Act. (CWA).

The most recent EPA 2002 polluted streams report was submitted by Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, North Dakota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Port Rico, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

When CEEI checked with California's Dept of Water quality, they were told that they submitted the 2000 report on time in 2001, and had no idea that they were not on the EPA web site.

According to the General Accounting Office, (GAO Reports, RCED 00-54 and 99-45) only 19 % of U.S. streams have been surveyed. In 2002, The John Heinz Center ,a Washington DC environmental, science, and economic think tank, released a report commissioned by the Clinton Administration.

The report ‘The State of the Nations Eco Systems’ states, “The U.S may not have any streams left that are free from chemical contamination ". Certain chemicals even in minute quantities have been shown to mimic hormones and have been connected to bird and fish population collapse, and with human’s reduction in sperm count though it is uncertain why this is happening.

CEEI estimates that there may be 200,000 to 400,000 streams that are polluted and are missing from the lists that are published on the CEEI web site or the EPA web site. "We simply don’t know", says Director Max Casebeau.

CEEI announced that they would gladly post these 38 state stream lists that are missing from CEEI’s web site. "Each of the thirty eight states can send these files to ceei@cox-internet.com in html or send the hyperlink" said Casebeau.

CEEI gets out to middle schools, 12,000 high schools, jr. colleges and 3400 colleges and universities in the United States.

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CEEI has been nominated as the most important environmental web site in the United States three times! The first nomination was for the Sunset Magazine award 2001 and the second is for the United Nations Environmental Programme Global 500 award in 2002, and the third was for the United Nations Champions of the Earth Award in 2003.