EPA Plans to Improve Transparency of Clean Water Act Enforcement

The EPA plans invest in improve the agency’s enforcement of NPDES permit compliance via on-line dissemination of the compliance status of firms discharging waste into public waterways.

Via Environmental Observer:

To clean up our nation’s waters, Administrator Jackson’s memo directs EPA OECA staff to devise a new action plan to achieve the following:

(1) Make clean water enforcement information more transparent. Administrator Jackson wants to “improve and enhance information that is available through the EPA Web site on compliance with the Clean Water Act and the level of enforcement activity in each state… [including] performance of individual businesses as well as state and national performance.”
(2) Raise the bar for clean water enforcement performance. The Administrator wants to bring strong, consistent and effective enforcement actions against those who violate the Clean Water Act. She has asked EPA staff to “boost [their] enforcement presence.”
(3) Launch a major shift of EPA’s clean water information systems. The Administrator wants data on facilities’ discharges and their compliance status to be available to “federal and state regulators and the public, over the web, [and] on a real-time basis.” For example, the Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) Web site displays inspection and enforcement information for various permitted dischargers under the Clean Water Act. But it only reflects compliance and enforcement records that local, state and federal entities have entered into the federal database.

Good on the EPA for moving in this direction. Its probably a bit overdue.

What I’ve Been Reading

(Hendrik Kerstens‘ The Bag)

-Ancient farmers converting large tracts of land from forest to farms may have altered the climate millennia ago.

-By 2050, food production in many regions of Asia will lag local population growth due to insufficient groundwater reserves for irrigation.

-More than I ever wanted to know about the taxonomy of the Juncus. They’re occasionally used in constructed wetlands, FYI.

Cellulosic Ethanol Produces Less Nutrient Pollution Than Corn-Based Ethanol

Corn-based ethanol, while popular here in the Cornbelt, isn’t exactly winning friends these days. A new paper from Christine Costello, et al, in Environmental Science & Technology claims that nitrate production (which is the main cause of Gulf Hypoxia) could be reduced by up to 20% if the region prioritized cellulosic ethanol crops. From the abstract:

Many studies have compared corn-based ethanol to cellulosic ethanol on a per unit basis and have generally concluded that cellulosic ethanol will result in fewer environmental consequences, including nitrate (NO3-) output. This study takes a system-wide approach in considering the NO3- output and the relative areal extent of hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico (NGOM) due to the introduction of additional crops for biofuel production. We stochastically estimate NO3- loading to the NGOM and use these results to approximate the areal extent of hypoxia for scenarios that meet the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007’s biofuel goals for 2015 and 2022. Crops for ethanol include corn, corn stover, and switchgrass; all biodiesel is assumed to be from soybeans. Our results indicate that moving from corn to cellulosics for ethanol production may result in a 20-percent decrease (based on mean values) in NO3- output from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya River Basin (MARB). This decrease will not meet the EPA target for hypoxic zone reduction. An aggressive nutrient management strategy will be needed to reach the 5000 km2 areal extent of hypoxia in the NGOM goal set forth by the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force even in the absence of biofuels, given current production to meet food, feed, and other industrial needs.