USA EPA Illegally Failed to Update Safe Standards

USA EPA Illegally Failed to Update Safe Standards



March 2007 - Failure by the 
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to update public health 
standards for beachwater quality violates the law, according 
to the ruling of a federal judge issued in California District 
Court in Los Angeles. Beachwater can be contaminated with 
viruses and bacteria from sewage and stormwater overflows. 
The March 21 decision by Judge Philip Gutierrez is the result 
of a lawsuit filed last August by the national environmental 
group Natural Resources Defense Council, NRDC. 
"EPA’s delays in setting new standards are unacceptable," said 
Nancy Stoner, director of NRDC's Clean Water Project. "The 
agency must act quickly now to protect the millions of people 
who run the risk of getting sick from contaminated beachwater 
every year." 
Aliso Creek, which flows to the ocean in San Diego, 
California, is contaminated due to residential and commercial 
use of fertilizers and pesticides, and pet and waterfowl 
waste. 
NRDC filed suit after the EPA missed the Congressionally 
mandated deadline of October 10, 2005 to revise outdated 
health standards for beachwater quality. 
The agency now claims it will not be able to finish updating 
the standards until at least 2011, although it is required to 
do so by the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal 
Health Act of 2000, known as the BEACH Act. 
Judge Gutierrez wrote, the BEACH Act "imposes a 
non-discretionary duty that EPA was obligated, but failed, to 
abide by." 
"The EPA admits as much," Gutierrez wrote. 
The EPA blames the delay on the studies that it must conduct 
before proposing the standards, arguing that studying bacteria 
and other pathogens is "time-consuming, resource intensive, 
controversial and technically complicated." 
The agency says the delay is due, in part, to Hurricane 
Katrina and other severe weather conditions that meant a study 
at a beach in Biloxi, Mississippi, could not be completed. 
The EPA stated in court documents that four other studies on 
the Great Lakes led the agency to conclude in 2006 that it 
needed to expand or revise future studies. 
In his ruling, Judge Gutierrez found that the EPA was required 
to meet the deadline regardless of whether or not it had a 
good reason for the delay. 
An EPA representative said the agency will "respect the 
judge's ruling." 
Further proceedings in the lawsuit will now address the 
appropriate remedy for the EPA’s violation. A hearing is 
scheduled Monday in Los Angeles to decide how long the agency 
will have to comply with the law. 
Coney Island Beach is a popular destination for New York City 
residents and tourists. 
Current beachwater quality standards, which were set in 1986, 
use outdated monitoring standards and testing methods that do 
not provide timely or comprehensive information to beachgoers 
about their risk of getting waterborne illnesses. 
The NRDC estimates that seven million Americans are sickened 
by contaminated recreational and drinking water every year. 
In 2005, the environmental group tallied 2,213 closing and 
health advisory days for Los Angeles County beaches, the 
highest number since statewide testing standards began in 
1999. 
That means the water at county beaches often is dirty enough 
to cause diseases including gastroenteritis, dysentery, 
hepatitis and other health problems, according to the NRDC. 
Nationwide, the number of closings and health advisory days at 
ocean, bay and Great Lakes beaches topped 20,000 in 2005 - the 
most since the NRDC began tracking the closures. 
The Court’s order finding EPA in violation of the law is 
online at: http://docs.nrdc.org/water/wat_07032301A.pdf. 





 

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