Improve water quality

Obama moves on promise to improve water quality

Updated: Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 | By Catharine Richert

President Barack Obama made some substantial promises about water restoration during his campaign.
 
Specifically, he pledged to improve drinking water standards, pay for new infrastructure to carry water and for wastewater treatment, protect the Great Lakes, and help high-growth areas with managing water supplies.
 
Let's take each part of Obama's promise and see how he's doing.
 
Drinking Water Standards
 
On Aug. 5, 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it would be deciding whether children's health should be taken into account when regulating chemical perchlorate, a chemical used in the manufacture of fireworks, flares and solid rocket propellant.
 
The chemical is found in just over 4 percent of the nation's drinking water supplies, according to EPA, and scientific experts and consumer advocates have raised questions about its safety. The Bush administration EPA made a preliminary decision not to regulate perchlorate.
 
Financing Water and Wastewater Treatment Infrastructure
 
The stimulus package passed earlier this year was full of money meant to update local water systems.
 
Here are two examples:
 
In July, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality was awarded $43 million to improve the state's wastewater system.
 
In the same month, about $34.5 million was given to New Mexico. About $15 million will be used for the state’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund program, and another $19.5 million will go to the New Mexico Finance Authority for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund program, according to the White House. Both programs provide low-interest loans for water projects, such as wastewater treatment, nonpoint source pollution control, and watershed and estuary management. 
 
Protect the Great Lakes
 
Legislation to create the Great Lakes Collaboration, a coalition dedicated to coordinating efforts to clean up the lakes, has been introduced in both the House, where it's sponsored by Republican Vernon Ehlers of Michigan, and in the Senate, where it was introduced by Democrat Carl Levin, also from Michigan.
 
Neither bill has seen any action, though Obama has taken other steps to make the Great Lakes a priority.
 
In his fiscal 2010 budget, Obama included $475 million to create a new Great Lakes restoration initiative. And in June 2009, he appointed Cameron Davis, president of a Chicago environmentalist group, to oversee the administration’s initiative to clean up the Great Lakes.
 
Meanwhile, in an effort to reduce water pollution, the EPA is revising its standards for water discharges from coal-fired power plants.
 
"Wastewater discharged from coal ash ponds, air pollution control equipment, and other equipment at power plants can contaminate drinking water sources, cause fish and other wildlife to die and create other detrimental environmental effects," according to a Sept. 15 news release.
 
Current regulations were issued in 1982 and have not kept pace with changes in the electric power industry, the news release said.
 
All these efforts are a step toward improving water quality, but they're all works in progress; the Great Lakes legislation has not yet passed, and the perchlorate and coal-fired plant rules are in the initial stages of adoption. As a result, we rate this promise In the Works.

Sources: White House, press release regarding water projects , accessed Sept. 30, 2009 Cleveland Plain Dealer, Obama Announces Great Lakes Plan , by Jean Dubail, Sept. 16, 2008 Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Expects to Revise Rules for Wastewater Discharges from Power Plants , accessed Sept. 30, 2009 Environmental Protection Agency, fact sheet on perchlorate , accessed Sept. 30, 2009