Daily News

EPA next month is expected to propose sweeping changes to its ocean discharge criteria rules, creating new water quality standards for the nation's oceans and designating areas as "special ocean sites" (SOS) that will be subject to extremely strict discharge limits, agency sources say. Environmentalists say they are thrilled with the modifications, while some industry groups and coastal states are becoming increasingly nervous about potential costs and burdens associated with the changes to the rule.

EPA has agreed to a legal settlement that allows the city of Phoenix to avoid a larger fine by setting up two studies that are unrelated to alleged violations of drinking water treatment standards. One of the studies will be on ways to improve taste and odor in drinking water, which is not governed by EPA standards, and the other study will examine potential contamination from a common fuel additive, methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). The findings may help EPA in drafting regulations to address widespread concern about groundwater pollution from MTBE.

An analysis conducted by the National Wildlife Federation on data gathered by state and federal regulatory agencies demonstrates that precipitation in New England contains levels of mercury that exceed safe levels established by EPA. The report, according to its authors, is intended to put pressure on EPA to issue an "affirmative determination" that mercury standards are needed.

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Environmentalists have released a report claiming that factory farms are dumping dangerous pathogens and other sewage into local waterways, resulting in millions of fish kills. The findings were released in order to pressure EPA to regulate feedlots more stringently than the agency is planning to do.

EPA the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical have signed an agreement designed to help the company recycle low-level radioactive laboratory waste rather than dispose of it in the environment.

The Army Corps of Engineers is defending its authority to regulate isolated wetlands. In a brief to the Supreme Court, the Corps migratory birds that rely on the availability of wetlands affect interstate commerce. The case has attracted widespread attention because of the potential impact on a number of other federal environmental regulations that have been defended under the Constitutions' commerce clause.

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EPA staff and observers say the agency is unlikely to complete work on any of its major Clean Water Act (CWA) or Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) regulations this year and that EPA will instead focus on moving proposals as far along in the pipeline as possible before President Clinton's term ends in January. This situation leaves the prospects uncertain for a host of major rules -- ranging from changes to CWA rules regulating dredging to new drinking water standards for arsenic.

Senate appropriators adopted a controversial restriction on the Department of Interior's ability to regulate mining on public lands. The provision was attached to an Interior appropriations bill that has already drawn fire from the Clinton administration and could result in a presidential veto.

Environmentalists also have raised concerns saying that the amendment could cause a greater number of contaminated sites on public lands. These environmentalists point out that mining wastes are a major factor in Superfund sites throughout the country.