[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 216 (Friday, November 7, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60448-60449]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-29592]



[[Page 60447]]

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Part IV





Environmental Protection Agency





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Department of Agriculture





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Office of the Secretary



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Clean Water Act; Vice President's Initiatives; Notice

  Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 216 / Friday, November 7, 1997 / 
Notices  

[[Page 60448]]



ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Office of the Secretary
[FRL-5919-6]


Clean Water Act; Vice President's Initiatives

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture.

ACTION: Notice of Vice President Gore's Clean Water Initiatives.

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SUMMARY: On October 18, 1997, Vice President Gore announced a set of 
Clean Water Initiatives to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Clean 
Water Act. In a memorandum to Heads of Departments and Agencies, he 
asked the Secretary of Agriculture (USDA) and the Administrator of the 
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to convene this effort.
    Despite many successes in cleaning up our Nation's waters, 
significant challenges remain. For example, harmful organisms in our 
waters and polluted runoff continue to pose threats to human health, 
fish and wildlife. To help solve these problems, the Vice President 
directed Federal agencies to develop a comprehensive Action Plan within 
120 days to improve and strengthen water pollution control efforts 
across the county. He also identified a number of specific initiatives 
to achieve these major goals: enhanced protection of public health; 
more effective control of polluted runoff; and increased community 
participation in local watershed management. Agencies will also 
emphasize high levels of public participation and access to 
information, innovative solutions, and cooperative relationships with 
private parties and landowners.
    USDA, EPA and other Federal agencies have begun work on the Action 
Plan. Since public involvement is an important part of this effort, the 
agencies are planning a series of constituent meetings to discuss the 
Action Plan. An Internet website is being created to provide the public 
with information about this effort.
    Groups or individuals may submit comments on actions that agencies 
should undertake in response to the Vice President's memorandum and are 
encouraged to specifically identify their topical interests and suggest 
ways to involve the public in development of the Action Plan. In 
addition to public involvement in the Action Plan, each element of the 
Plan will have substantial, and in some cases formal, opportunities for 
public involvement in the specific agency actions. The Plan will not 
determine the outcome of regulations, but will identify the overall 
goals of agency actions and the vision of how they fit together.

DATES: Written submissions should be addressed to one of the persons 
listed directly below on or before December 8, 1997.

ADDRESSES: Comments should be sent to Denise Coleman, Room 6032S, PO 
Box 2890, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. 20013 or 
Robert Goo, Assessment and Watershed Protection Division (4503F), U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency, 401 M Street SW., Washington, D.C. 
20460.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Denise Coleman, USDA; (202) 720-1845 
or Robert Goo at (202) 260-7025.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The full text of Vice President Gore's Clean 
Water Initiative, October 18, 1997, Memorandum follows.

    Dated: November 4, 1997.
Robert Perciasepe,
Assistant Administrator, Office of Water, Environmental Protection 
Agency.
James R. Lyons,
Under Secretary, Natural Resources and Environment, Department of 
Agriculture.

October 18, 1997.
Memorandum for Heads of Departments and Agencies
From the Vice President
Subject: Clean Water Initiatives

    The twenty-fifth anniversary of the Clean Water Act presents an 
opportunity for all Americans to celebrate the successes of the Act 
to date, and to recognize the vital role of clean water in 
protecting public health and securing our economic future. In 25 
years, the Clean Water Act has stopped billions of pounds of 
pollution from flowing into our rivers, lakes, and streams, and 
doubled the number of waterways that are safe for swimming and 
fishing. Rivers once polluted enough to catch fire, lakes once 
devoid of life, and streams once used as open sewers are now 
restored centerpieces of healthy communities because of the Clean 
Water Act.
    This is also an appropriate occasion to recognize that, despite 
significant progress, the challenge for all of us in protecting our 
Nation's waters remains unfinished. The health of our people 
continues to be threatened by exposure to harmful organisms in our 
waters; consumption of fish from many of our waters presents a 
threat to the most vulnerable among us; polluted runoff has for too 
long eluded control under conventional regulatory approaches. 
Communities need Federal help and partnership to protect water 
quality on a community-led, watershed basis, rather than through 
piecemeal steps. It is incumbent on all Federal agencies to respond 
to these challenges in a manner that honors and furthers the goals 
of the Clean Water Act. Agencies must bring to these challenges a 
new vision, one which ensures that the level of effort is 
commensurate with the importance of clean water to the health and 
well-being of every community.
    I am therefore requesting that the Secretary of Agriculture and 
the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in 
consultation with all other affected agencies develop a 
comprehensive Action Plan that builds on the Administration's clean 
water successes over the past five years and addresses three major 
goals: enhanced protection from public health threats posed by water 
pollution; more effective control of polluted runoff; and promotion 
of water quality protection on a watershed basis. This Action Plan 
will be informed by the following principles:
     Agencies will develop cooperative approaches that 
promote coordination and reduce duplication among Federal, State and 
local agencies and Tribal governments wherever possible.
     Agencies will ensure participation of community groups 
and the public to the maximum extent practicable. Such participation 
will include community and public access to information, to protect 
the public's right-to-know about water quality issues.
     Agencies will emphasize innovative approaches to 
pollution control, including, where appropriate, incentives, market-
based mechanisms, and cooperative partnerships with landowners and 
other private parties.
    The Action Plan developed according to these principles will 
encompass all appropriate regulatory, incentive, compliance, 
enforcement, and budgetary steps, and will include, at a minimum, 
the following elements:

Protecting Public Health

    1. EPA and the Department of Commerce (acting through the 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)) will 
identify steps to reduce the need for fish consumption advisories, 
giving particular attention to toxics that affect fetal and 
childhood development. The Action Plan will also identify steps to 
ensure protection of children from exposure to harmful organisms on 
our beaches and other recreational waters.
    2. EPA will identify the major sources of nitrogen and 
phosphorous in our waters, and identify actions to address these 
sources. In particular, EPA will accelerate water quality criteria 
for waters in every geographic region in the country. Specifically, 
EPA will establish a schedule so that EPA and the states are 
implementing a criteria system for nitrogen and phosphorous runoff 
for lakes, rivers, and estuaries by the year 2000.

Preventing Polluted Runoff

    3. EPA will expedite new standards for targeted problems of 
polluted runoff.
    Specifically, EPA will expedite its new strategy from animal 
feeding operations that produce polluted runoff, and include in that 
strategy specific commitments to revise outdated regulations. EPA 
will ensure that final regulations for polluted runoff from storm 
water are in place by March 1, 1999.

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    4. Prior to or as part of the Action Plan, the Department of 
Agriculture (USDA) will notify the states through the Federal 
Register of the availability of the Conservation Reserve Enhancement 
Program (CREP) and shall provide further guidance to the states in 
presenting proposals. USDA will work with states to help them 
develop proposals leading to as many agreements as practicable that 
will address critical water quality, soil erosion, and fish and 
wildlife habitat needs, including habitat needed for threatened and 
endangered species. USDA will work with states to identify whether 
such agreements could be used to protect important habitat for fish 
in the Pacific Northwest, California, and other areas where 
significant natural resources may be affected by diminished water 
quality. While this further guidance is being developed, USDA will 
continue to work expeditiously with states to complete pending 
proposals by states to protect water quality and habitat through 
CREP.
    5. NOAA and EPA will have in place all 29 state Coastal Nonpoint 
Pollution Control Programs by June 30, 1998, beginning with the 
highest priority watersheds. NOAA and EPA will work with States to 
ensure that these programs are fully approved by December 31, 1999.
    6. NOAA and EPA will develop an action-oriented strategy to 
comprehensively address coastal nonpoint source pollution. This 
strategy will be based on the full array of NOAA's and EPA's 
scientific, educational, technical assistance, and management 
programs. This strategy will be coordinated with other Federal 
agencies and coastal states and territories, and will consider the 
needs of approved state Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Programs.
    7. The Action Plan will include a strategy for ensuring that 
lands and facilities owned, managed, or controlled by Federal 
agencies are national models and laboratories for effective 
watershed planning and control of polluted runoff. The Action plan 
will include a strategy to ensure that Federal actions, programs, 
and activities do not contribute to the sprawl or other forms of 
development that may exacerbate the problem of polluted runoff or 
other water quality problems.
    8. The Action Plan will include a strategy to achieve a net gain 
of as many as 100,000 acres of wetlands by the year 2005. USDA and 
the Department of the Interior (DOI) will ensure that they use 
common data and reference points in determining whether these goals 
have been met. Consistent with USDA's Buffer Initiative, the Action 
Plan will achieve a goal of 2 million miles of buffer strips 
protecting waters from agricultural runoff by the year 2002.

Ensuring Community-Based Watershed Management

    9. The Action Plan will include a strategy for enhancing 
partnerships with state and local agencies, Tribal governments, and 
local communities in protecting water quality on a watershed basis.
    10. USDA will develop a strategy for ensuring that agricultural 
producers in 1000 critical rural watersheds have the technical and 
financial assistance they need to abate polluted runoff and to 
comply with applicable standards, using programs and authorities 
like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, the Conservation 
Reserve Program, the Wetlands Reserve Program, and others. This 
effort will be undertaken in a manner consistent with USDA's goals 
for watershed and basin-level planning. This effort also will give 
preference to states that have mechanisms in place to ensure 
effective cooperation among Federal, state, and local agencies as 
well as with local landowners and the public.
    11. USDA, in consultation with DOI, will develop a strategy to 
ensure proper stewardship of federally managed watersheds, and to 
restore watersheds adversely affected by past management practices. 
The strategy will address the need to address runoff from abandoned 
mines, to eliminate unnecessary roads, to improve road maintenance, 
and to ensure coordinated watershed management strategies regardless 
of jurisdictional boundaries. Working with local landowners, USDA 
will develop a strategy for addressing nonpoint source pollution in 
those watersheds that consist of a mix of public private lands, to 
make more effective use of resources to address high-priority 
restoration efforts in these watersheds.
    All elements of the Action Plan will provide for appropriate 
input from state and local agencies, Tribal governments, Members of 
Congress, and the public. EPA and USDA will consider, in developing 
the Plan, what further steps are needed to establish a national 
consensus on the elements of the Plan.
    The Action Plan will be submitted to me within one-hundred 
twenty (120) days, following review by the Council on Environmental 
Quality and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The 
Administrator of EPA and the Secretary of Agriculture, and all 
affected agencies, will ensure that all elements of the Action Plan 
are coordinated with OMB and consistent with the President's budget.
    All independent regulatory agencies are requested to assist in 
the implementation of this memorandum.

[This memorandum is not intended to create any right, benefit, or 
trust responsibility, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law 
or equity by a party against the United States, its agencies or 
instrumentalities, or any other person.]

    This memorandum will be published in the Federal Register.

[FR Doc. 97-29592 Filed 11-6-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P