Water Quality Enforcement in the Scott Pruitt Era

The appointment of Scott Pruitt as Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was an abomination. His hostility toward environmental protection has been clear, as has his intent to dismantle protections long ago enacted into law.

Negotiation with Pruitt and his subordinates is a waste of time. As concerns water quality, U.S. subsidies to agriculture that push expansion of cultivation into marginal lands, requiring heavy fertilization, has resulted in massive amounts of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus to run off into lakes and streams, generating algal blooms, oxygen depletion and dead zones. This is particularly evident in the Maumee River watershed and the western basin of Lake Erie.

In order to compel Pruitt’s EPA to restrict nutrient runoff, we need to study the elements and procedures, get organized and head to court.

The fastest, most concise way for the serious student to become acquainted with the struggle for water quality in the U.S., including related politics, government and law, is to read the appellate decision in the Chesapeake Bay case, American Farm Bureau, et al. vs. EPA, et al. (which the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review). http://media.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/16/09/151234P.pdf

The agriculture/environment conflict appears again in a pending federal case concerning impairment by ag pollution in the western basin of Lake Erie.  http://elpc.org/newsroom/howards-blog/elpc-litigation-driving-results-ohio-epa-recognizes-reality-lake-erie-impaired-pollution-key-next-steps  

Accommodating nutrient runoff - Shutterstock

Algal bloom in western Lake Erie - NASA