IMPORTANT NEWS FLASH: RIVERKEEPERS CHALLENGE MD DEPT. of the ENVIRONMENT!
RIVERKEEPERS PETITION EPA TO REVOKE THE AUTHORITY OF MDE TO ADMINISTER THE CLEAN WATER ACT!
On December 7, 2009, Drew Koslow, the Choptank RIVERKEEPER®, as part of group comprising the twelve Maryland Chesapeake KEEPERS (WATERKEEPERS Chesapeake), filed a legal petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The petition requests that EPA take back the authority it previously delegated to the State of Maryland to enforce key components of the Clean Water Act. The petitioners are represented in this action by the University of Maryland’s Environmental Law Clinic.
Under the Clean Water Act, the EPA has the right to delegate its administrative and enforcement authority to states. Along with such delegation comes important federal dollars to assist the state in implementing the law. Along with such delegation also, however, comes the responsibility on the part of the state competently to do so. The law is an empty promise, of course, if it is not meaningfully applied or enforced. Sadly, this is what the petition avers has been happening in Maryland for too long.
The petition claims that Maryland’s Department of the Environment (MDE), which is vested with the authority to implement and enforce critically important aspects of the Clean Water Act in our state, has profoundly failed in its obligations. The petition cites, by example, dozens of specific instances over the past decade where MDE has failed to live up to its legal responsibilities under the Act. The specific failures listed are provided to exemplify the more widespread endemic failure of MDE to meet its responsibilities. The petition supports its claims with facts, alleging that despite the repeated assurances of MDE to its constituents that it is meaningfully applying and enforcing the Clean Water Act in our state, only the opposite is true.
The filing of the petition legally triggers an EPA audit of Maryland’s compliance with its administrative and enforcement responsibilities. If the EPA agrees with the petitioners that the state is not in compliance with its obligations there are a series of remedies that could be agreed upon. In order to keep its delegated authority, and the federal funds that come with it, the state could agree to significant constructive changes in how MDE implements and enforces the law. Meaningful additional resources could be allocated to the effort; additional personnel could be hired to support the difficult and important work of the inspectors on the ground; stronger protocols could be adopted; an entirely fresh agency mindset might evolve. The goal of the petition is to see that the Clean Water Act in Maryland, one way or another, is effective and enforced, leading to the improvement in the quality of our waterways that it is designed to achieve. (A link to the petition appears below.)
It is shameful for all of us that we have let our rivers and our grand Bay become as degraded as it is now. It is time that we all participate in changing our behaviors to reverse these trends. Rivers and bays don’t have voices of their own. They can’t protest on the street, or assemble in the congresses. Nor can they bring legal actions to compel our leaders to allocate the resources necessary to restore them to health. At organizations like CREB Conservancy, we are giving a strong voice to our rivers. And where state leaders and officials have lost their way, lost the will or ability adequately to protect our living resources, we are working to help them get back on track. Sometimes gentle urging is not enough. Sometimes courteous dialogue is not enough. When more is required, we will give our rivers a voice that will not shrink from controversy, but that will speak out like the ringing of a bell.
Efforts of this kind require strategic thought and significant research and effort, and concomitantly, organizations capable of hiring and maintaining qualified people. To those of you who have supported CREB this year we are very grateful. For those of you still considering your year-end giving, we hope that you will keep CREB Conservancy in mind.