EPA Sounds Alarm on Water Shortage and Quality

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EPA CHIEF SOUNDS ALARM ON WATER FOR U.S., WORLD

Date: 020328

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By Kilian, Washington Bureau, March 28, 2002

Washington - Threats to water quality and quantity pose the greatest

environmental challenge to the United States, in large part because of

climate change and antiquated and deteriorating water systems,

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christie Whitman warned

Wednesday.

She said New York and other major cities are distributing water

through pipes more than a century old.

Addressing reporters at a breakfast meeting, Whitman said she has

asked for congressional hearings this spring to help determine the

extent of the water shortage and pollution-control problems and the

cost of solving them.

" Water is going to be the biggest environmental issue that we face in

the 21st Century, in terms of both quantity and quality, " she said.

" Look [at drought problems] around the United States and around the

world. Look at the Mideast, where there's a severe drought going on.

Clean water is a major problem in Afghanistan. We have a million

children dying every year from waterborne diseases that are entirely

preventable. "

Whitman also urged Congress to replace the federal government's

controversial new source review policy for controlling power plant

pollution with a program called Clear Skies that President Bush has

proposed.

The EPA chief said the president believes global warming presents a

problem but is uncertain how to focus the government's resources for

dealing with it.

Several studies over the last year support Whitman's concern about

water.

The most recent report, released last month by the Harvard University

School of Public Health, found that although water is relatively

abundant in the U.S., " current trends are sufficient to strain water

resources over time, especially on a regional basis. "

The study cited as contributing factors the deterioration of public

water infrastructure such as pipes, as well as global climate effects,

waterborne disease, land use, groundwater and surface water

contamination, and ineffective government regulations.

" U.S. public drinking water supplies will face challenges in these

areas in the next century and . . . solutions to at least some of them

will require institutional changes, " the report said.

At least $151 billion needs to be spent over the next 20 years to

guarantee the continued high quality of U.S. water, the report said.

The Water Infrastructure Network, a national coalition of local

government officials, water and water treatment utilities, health

administrators, engineers, and environmentalists, reported similar

findings last year, putting the total cost of solving the problem at

$1 trillion.

The coalition's study said that an additional $23 billion a year must

be spent on the nation's 54,000 community water systems to meet all

the requirements of the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act

and to replace aging and failing pipes and other infrastructure.

The federal government now spends about $3 billion a year on water

resources and wastewater treatment, the group's report said.

Whitman emphasized that estimates of the costs of meeting American's

future water needs did not include protecting water systems against

contamination by terrorists.

" That's just for leaky infrastructure, " she said. " They're leaking.

Sewer and septic systems are a problem. Clearly those dollar figures

are way beyond the ability of any single entity to address. The

federal government can't do it. The state governments can't do it. The

municipal governments can't do it. The utilities can't do it. It's

going to be an enormous [dollar] number. "

The new source review is a government regulatory program requiring

power companies to upgrade pollution-control equipment when they

expand existing plants. The federal government has filed suit against

51 power plants that it charges are evading the new requirements.

Whitman complained that the source regulatory scheme involves the

government in every step of a power company's implementation of new

pollution controls and is counterproductive.

She called instead for adoption of Bush's Clear Skies program, which

would simply set limits for power plant pollution emissions and leave

it to the power companies to comply as they see fit.

" What `Clear Skies' does is set the cap, " she said. " It doesn't go

and tell the utilities, `You have to do this here and this there and

that there at your facility.' You get there however you want. "

She said Bush's program would result in 25 million tons fewer sulfur

dioxide emissions than the Clean Air Act regulations would over 10

years.

" There would be a 10 million-ton better reduction in nitrous oxide

emissions over 10 years and 20 million tons less of mercury over six

years, " she said.

Whitman denied environmentalist complaints that Bush is doing nothing

about global warming.

" What the president has done is say, `Look, we have a problem here.

We all know that something exists. We don't have all the science that

will tell you exactly what needs to be done. We need to know where to

focus our resources to make the kind of decisions we need to make. We

need more science.' "

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