Green Blog: E.P.A. Plans Crackdown on Muddy Upstate Waterway

The federal Environmental Protection Agency wants to list the Lower Esopus Creek in the Catskills region of New York as an ?impaired? waterway. Such a step could force New York City to stop discharging muddy water into the creek from the Ashokan Reservoir, one of the sources of the city?s drinking water.

The muddying of the Lower Esopus has been an issue for environmental officials from both the city and the state because the tributary is vital to recreation and agriculture in Ulster County. The county executive, Michael P. Hein, has compared the city?s actions on the Esopus to those of ?an occupying nation? toward ?indigenous people.?

Last May the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, which enforces clean water standards, and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, which runs the city?s water supply system, announced an accord that they said would alleviate the standoff. But the agreement did not prohibit the discharges from the Ashokan Reservoir, which the city says are needed to rid the reservoir of sediment and other materials stirred up by rains after storms.

This month, the E.P.A. stepped in by announcing that it plans to list the Lower Esopus as an impaired water body to reduce ithe turbidity from the discharges. (Turbidity is considered a pollutant.) The agency has opened a public comment period fore making its decision final.that runs until Oct. 9.

Seth Ausubel, acting chief of the watershed management branch of the E.P.A. in New York, said in an interview that the creek needs ?a pollution diet? and that New York officials need to go back to the drawing table to come up with a solution to the problem.

Until then, the discharges are causing ?a substantial visible contrast to natural conditions,? in violation of state and federal water quality ?standards, he said.

?The releases cause substantial visible contrast at periods of time when the water would otherwise be cleaner,? to the detriment of aquatic life and fishing, boating and other recreation uses of the water, Mr. Ausubel said.

New York City has mostly blamed nature.Officials with the city?s Department of Environmental Protection say that more frequent rains over the last two years have stirred up sediment that washes into the Ashokan Reservoir?s two basins. At the same time, a 2007 order from the state required the city to reduce its use of a chemical, alum, that it had relied on to treat turbidity.

?We believe the proposed listing is unwarranted and is not based on data that accurately reflects normal activity in the Lower Esopus,? ?Ted Timbers, ?a spokesman for the D.E.P., said in a statement.

The city enjoys an exemption from federal filtration requirements ? a rarity in the United States ? and therefore takes care to protect its unfiltered system comprising 19 reservoirs and three controlled lakes, partly for financial reasons. Installing a filtration system would involve spending an estimated $11 billion and passing on the water rate increases to customers.

Officials with the state Department of Environmental Conservation said in a statement that they had not sought to list the Lower Esopus Creek as impaired ?because the source of the?suspended sediment ? or ?turbidity? ? problem was mostly streambed erosion that resulted from?large flood events in 2011.?

?This water is not now turbid,? they said.???Normally, waters are listed as impaired due to active human-induced pollution? ? meaning sources like industrial activity and ?sewage treatment plants.

But Riverkeeper, an environmental group that has advocated the impairment listing, said the pollution problem persists and that the listing would impose a legal obligation on the state to require the city to bring its reservoir operations into compliance with state law.

?This decision on E.P.A.?s part is significant because it could begin to change the balance of power in what has been this David and Goliath battle to save the Esopus Creek,? Kate Hudson, watershed program director for the group, said by e-mail.

Comments to the E.P.A. on the proposed listing can be sent to Sheri Jewhurst, E.P.A. Region 2, 290 Broadway, New York, N.Y., 10007 or by e-mail to jewhurst.sheri@epa.gov.

Source: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/e-p-a-plans-crackdown-on-muddy-upstate-waterway/?partner=rss&emc=rss

al gore la dodgers lawrence o donnell magic johnson jetblue pilot solicitor general neighborhood watch