Summer 2000, Volume 9, Number 2
TMDL: The Smoke Clears
Forest Resources Association Bulletin - August 2000
The story of the promulgation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's "Total Maximum Daily Load" rule during the five weeks preceding the rule's adoption, on July 11 can be best understood in view of Disraeli's observation that "politics is the art of the possible" - not the art of the ethical.
Under extreme grass roots pressure from all sides to withdraw the rule, in early June EPA announced that it would withdraw the "forestry provisions," which would have raised the threat of a federal permitting process with respect to harvesting and silviculture. Then the Greens weighed in, and EPA reinserted harvesting and silviculture. Then another grassroots push from forestry come-including a July 11 Capitol Hill press conference by 70 members of the Pulp and Paperworkers' Resource Council and harvesting and silviculture came back out again. In the midst of all this maneuvering, Congress inserted a rider on an important Appropriations bill to withhold funds for implementing the rule during the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2000. EPA made note of this rider, but in the ten days between the passage of the bill and its signature by the President, EPA hurriedly rushed its regulation to completion, and EPA Administrator Carol Browner signed it.
The final rule still exempts harvesting and silviculture and also withdraws a disastrous provision on "blended waters implementation plans," which could have resulted in a zero discharge requirement for manufacturing facilities in watersheds which EPA determined did not meet water quality standards. In addition, the Administration has acknowledged that the terms of the Appropriation has also coyly hinted that Congress has the 60-day period which began July 11 to overturn the rule legislatively, and Congress might just be angry enough to do so. Meanwhile, on July 27, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has reported out a bill to fund studies to determine whether EPA used "good science"' to craft the TMDL rule; whether implementing it is feasible; and to test the rule in a specific watershed. This bill, if it becomes low, would also provide states with $750 million a year to implement the rule.
The full text of the 277-page rule is posted as a pdf file at www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl/finalrule/finalrule.pdf (Adobe Acrobat Reader, available at no charge from Adobe, is necessary to view or download).