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NCGA joins legal challenge to EPA Chesapeake Bay ruling

 

 

By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER

Ohio Correspondent

 

WASHINGTON D.C. — The National Corn Growers Assoc. (NCGA), and the American Farm Bureau Federation, along with other agricultural and building groups, are petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower court decision allowing the U.S. EPA’s Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program for the Chesapeake Bay.

A TMDL as defined by the EPA is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant a water body can receive and still meet water quality standards, and an allocation of that load among the various sources of that pollutant.

"This is a legal fight that NCGA, Farm Bureau and the others have been involved in for the past several years," said Ethan Mathews, director of public policy for NCGA. "The reason it is important to us is we think it is clear that EPA overstepped their authority that is provided to them in the Clean Water Act (CWA).

"They are getting involved in things that are very much state and local issues and that are best addressed by local governments."

The TMDL has been in effect since the end of 2010, said Ron Carleton, EPA counselor to the administrator for agricultural policy. A U.S. District Court upheld the TMDL and at the end of July the Third Circuit Court of Appeals did the same.

"We believe the TMDLs are good and effective," Carleton said. "These were also worked out in cooperation and collaboration with the states in the Bay watershed … The farmers and ranchers in these watersheds, I think they get it. They understand the importance of the Bay, and they want to protect the Chesapeake Bay just as much as anyone else does."

The NCGA and the ag coalition, however, believe this TMDL is not the best way to achieve the hoped for results, Mathews said. They also fear if the EPA is allowed to go unchecked with this program, this is a model it will use throughout the country in other watersheds, including the Lake Erie area and the Mississippi River Basin. They think it important that the EPA is challenged.

"There has been a lot of attention to EPA’s recent rule expanding its jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act," said AFBF General Counsel Ellen Steen. "EPA’s overreach in the Bay ‘blueprint’ is just as aggressive, and its impact on communities and businesses is just as dramatic. From the beginning, this was designed as a model that would be followed around the country."

The tie-in with EPA’s Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) is that WOTUS is just another example of the EPA’s overreach, Mathews said. EPA is over-asserting its authority in areas Congress never intended for the agency to become involved.

"That is part of the reason that WOTUS is tied in, because WOTUS is much fresher in the people’s minds that the Chesapeake Bay TMDL program," Mathews said. "If this goes forward and we are not successful, it will be coming to a watershed near you."

But each area is different, Carleton said. Options the EPA might pursue in one area might be totally different somewhere else. EPA has been in several voluntary collaborations in the Midwest concerning nutrient reduction strategy. "We’ve been partnering and collaborating with a variety of stakeholders throughout the Midwest to try to develop some policies and approaches to address the nutrient issues there," Carleton said.

"Administrator (Gina) McCarthy is committed to doing as much as she can with voluntary efforts, through collaborations … That is the best way to get from here to there and the best way to address some of the nutrient management and water quality issues that we have."

11/18/2015