Clinton Seeks Broad Water Cleanup

In a bid to cut pollution along the California coast and other shorelines across the nation, President Clinton said Saturday that he would order the Environmental Protection Agency to toughen federal water quality standards.

The initiative, one of the most sweeping since the federal Clean Water Act was signed in 1972, is aimed at curbing pollution in more than 20,000 lakes, rivers and coastal areas, including Santa Monica Bay, the Great Lakes and the Florida Everglades.

It is “unacceptable” that 40% of the country’s waterways are too polluted for fishing or swimming, Clinton said in his weekly radio address.

“The EPA will work in partnership with states to assess the state of all our waterways, to identify the most polluted waters and to develop strong and enforceable plans to restore them to health,” he said.

Clinton cited an Aug. 7 incident in which 10 children became gravely ill after swimming in a private Connecticut lake that may have been contaminated with E. coli bacteria.

All of the children were expected to recover, although three of them suffered kidney failure, apparently as a result of swimming in Lake Hayward in East Haddam, Conn.

The issue of clean water has brought mounting public concern and at least two dozen lawsuits seeking court orders to clean up the nation’s waterways, experts say.

The problem has reached a critical stage in areas such as Long Beach, which continues to receive runoff and garbage dumped into its waterways even as the city tries to remake itself as a tourist destination for beach and aquatic attractions.

Although Clinton did not spell out how much farms, factories and government agencies would have to cut back on runoff, the White House ordered the EPA to work with states to establish “total maximum daily loads” or benchmarks to reduce pollution.

Those who exceed the maximums could be fined up to $25,000 a day or jailed.

“These new rules are intended to clean up waters that were legally polluted because there were no rules against dumping wastes,” said David Beckman, a Los Angeles-based senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

He compared the water initiative to the EPA’s effort to clean up the nation’s toxic waste dumps under the multimillion-dollar Superfund program.

Though the nation’s waterways aren’t as dangerous as they were in 1969, when the polluted Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire, experts say they still seriously threaten people’s health. The worst problems are faced by swimmers who venture close to storm drains, where the greatest concentration of runoff collects, according to experts.

A 1995 survey by Epidemiology magazine of thousands of swimmers at three Santa Monica beaches found that those who swam near storm drains were twice as likely to suffer gastrointestinal and respiratory problems, fever and sore throats as those who kept at least 400 yards away.

The clean water campaign, however, may intensify the Clinton administration’s battle with the Republican-controlled Congress. Earlier this month, federal lawmakers passed a budget bill that the president claims would decimate clean water enforcement.

Clinton has threatened to veto the Republican bill, which would trim taxes by $792 billion over 10 years, because he contends it would mainly benefit the wealthy and bring back government deficits.

On Saturday, during his radio address, he cited additional concerns about the effects of the tax cut proposal on clean water and the environment.

“Their budget plan, because it contains such a large tax cut, would actually threaten our environment because it will require big cuts in environmental enforcement, letting toxic waste dumps fester, even shutting down national parks,” Clinton said.

In the GOP radio response, Rep. Rob Portman of Ohio urged Clinton to embrace the Republican tax plan, saying it would put money back in the pockets of taxpayers.

“We want you and every working American to be able to keep more of the money you earn so you can prepare a more secure future for yourself and your children,” Portman said.