Poor Data Found to Stall Water Cleanup

A lack of scientific information is undercutting efforts to halt the flow of bacteria, sediments, pesticides and other pollutants into the nation’s lakes and streams, an advisory council of the National Academy of Sciences concluded in a report issued Friday.

The report, by a panel of the National Research Council, questioned the data and methodology underpinning cleanup decisions affecting 21,000 bodies of water around the country.

“Considerable uncertainty exists about whether some of these waters violate standards,” the report says. “In addition, other waters that are impaired have yet to be identified.”

The panel found numerous flaws in the ways states measure the cleanliness of their bodies of water, concluding that efforts to reduce pollution from such sources as industry, farming and urban areas have been widely inconsistent.

The report does not single out California, but it has special resonance in Southern California, where torrents of tainted urban runoff regularly flow into coastal waters and taint the region’s beaches.

Release of the report comes at a politically sensitive time, with both industry and environmentalists waiting to see how the Bush administration deals with a controversial rule, on hold from the Clinton era, that would push regulators to tighten controls on water pollution.

Spokesmen for both groups reacted enthusiastically to sections of the report.

The scientific panel that wrote the report recommends that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, charged with regulating water pollution, adapt a more science-based approach in identifying polluted waters and creating cleanup plans. It notes the growing importance of controlling “nonpoint pollution sources,” the runoff from far-flung sources, including farms, golf courses, backyards and paved lots.

“The best available science, especially with regard to nonpoint sources of pollution, will be needed for regulatory and non-regulatory actions to be equitable and effective,” the report states.

The chairman of the National Research Council panel, Kenneth H. Reckhow, a professor of water resources at Duke University, noted several aspects of the report as key.

Reckhow said that some states rushing to meet federal requirements had labeled some water bodies “impaired” or polluted without adequate data, meaning that some should not be listed as polluted while other tainted rivers and lakes have not been identified as such.

“That’s an inefficient use of resources,” Reckhow said. “ . . . Resources could be taken away from a water body that is truly violated. What we’d like to do is identify all of the water bodies without error.”

The panel recommends that the EPA launch a two-step process that allows states to put suspect waters on a preliminary list, gather more data and then determine a final list of waters in need of cleanup.

Reckhow also stressed that science is riddled with uncertainty. So the report calls for moving ahead with cleanup plans, reviewing and revising them periodically using new information and techniques.

The report deals with a water-quality program known as “TMDL” or “total maximum daily loads”--an EPA effort to measure and control water pollution. A controversial Clinton administration rule that would add clout to the Clean Water Act and strengthen controls of polluted runoff was put on hold by Congress last fall, pending more research. Congress asked the National Research Council to study how the TMDL program identifies polluted waters and how to improve them.

A congressional staff member said Friday that the tighter EPA rule, also now on hold, has sparked tremendous debate on Capitol Hill. Asked how the report could affect that debate, the source said, “Most people consider it an extremely remote scenario that the EPA would decide to let the rule go into effect without any changes and that Congress would allow that to happen.”

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Times staff writer Seema Mehta in Orange County contributed to this story.