View From The Hill

Clean Water, Environmental Justice Enjoy Victories in the House

05/24/05

Earthjustice batted .667 last week in the federal funding game, winning passage of two out of three crucial amendments in the House of Representatives during passage of the $26.2 billion Interior, Environment and Related Agencies appropriations bill for fiscal year 2006.

An amendment to block EPA's controversial proposal to allow routine discharges of raw sewage into our waterways was adopted, and the House passed an amendment to help assure that communities do not bear an unfair burden from polluting industries because of their race or income. However, an amendment to end taxpayer subsidies for logging roads in Alaska's Tongass National Forest was defeated by an unexpected procedural maneuver.

Heading into the debate over the funding bill, significant bipartisan support was building for all three amendments. Recognizing the inevitable, the House Republican leadership capitulated on the water and environmental justice measures at the last minute and allowed these amendments to pass without extended debate or a roll call vote. But House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-CA) raised a surprising challenge to the Tongass rider, forcing the measure out of the bill without any vote at all.

Driving Subsidized Roads Out of the Tongass
In a week when the Senate's Republican leadership used every opportunity to hammer home the need for "up or down votes" on judicial nominees, Representative Pombo turned to procedural sleight of hand to avoid an up-or-down vote on a popular amendment that would have protected the Tongass National Forest in Alaska while reducing taxpayer subsidies.

Representatives Steve Chabot (R-OH) and Robert Andrews (D-NJ) had expected another successful vote on their proposal to eliminate millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies for the construction of new logging roads in the Tongass, often called America's Rainforest. Last year, similar language from Chabot and Andrews won passage on the floor of the House by a vote of 222-205, although it was not included in the final omnibus spending bill.

But before debate could begin on the measure this year, Representative Pombo challenged the amendment, arguing that it constituted new legislation on a spending bill, which is not allowed under House rules. Despite previous vetting of the amendment, and the successful passage of similar language last year, Pombo's challenge was upheld. Normally, Representatives Chabot and Andrews could have quickly rewritten and reintroduced the amendment to avoid the procedural challenge. But just a few hours earlier, House leaders had barred that avenue by closing the bill to new amendments, effectively ending fight on the floor before it had even begun.

Invoking a procedural challenge allowed House Republican leaders to avoid defending an indefensible idea: that taxpayers should subsidize clearcutting in the Tongass to the tune of tens of millions of dollars each year. The Chabot/Andrews amendment had strong support from numerous conservative lawmakers, taxpayer advocates, hunting and fishing groups, Alaska businesses, and religious leaders, as well as environmental groups.

In 2004, the U. S. Forest Service spent nearly $49 million of taxpayer money on the logging program and logging roads in the Tongass. Yet private timber companies paid the federal government only $800,000 in return for the privilege of cutting down the Tongass's towering old-growth trees. America's taxpayers therefore lost $48 million -- more than three times the financial losses in 2002 and 2003 combined -- along with hundreds of acres of magnificent rainforest and the complex ecosystem it supports.

Language similar to the Chabot/Andrews amendment could still be offered later this year in the Senate version of the Interior appropriations bill. Earthjustice will continue to look for ways to save the Tongass -- and taxpayers' money -- from these unjustified federal subsidies.

Protecting Minority and Low-Income Communities from Unfair Pollution Levels
Minority and low-income neighborhoods across the nation often face disproportionately high levels of air and water pollution and exposure to toxic waste and other health hazards because federal environmental laws are not always fairly enforced. These communities are far more likely to have environmental health hazards in their midst, including landfills, petrochemical plants, waste incinerators, and contaminated sites.

Representative Alcee Hastings (D-FL) offered an amendment to the Environmental Protection Agency's budget to require that EPA's activities comply with Executive Order 12898, "Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations." EO 12898 directs EPA and every other federal agency to develop an environmental justice strategy "that identifies and addresses disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies, or activities on minority populations and low-income populations," with the goal of achieving environmental justice in federally funded programs for those communities.

Despite this directive, numerous reports in recent years have found that federal agencies in general -- and EPA in particular -- have consistently failed to live up to this commitment. For example, the EPA Inspector General concluded in March 2004 that the agency "has not fully implemented Executive Order 12898 nor consistently integrated environmental justice into its day-to-day operations. EPA has not identified minority and low-income [populations]... and has neither defined nor developed criteria for determining [who is] disproportionately impacted. Moreover, in 2001, the Agency restated its commitment to environmental justice in a manner that does not emphasize minority and low-income populations, the intent of the Executive Order."

With broad support from a coalition of civil rights, religious, grassroots, environmental, and environmental justice groups, Mr. Hastings wrote an amendment to force EPA to take its environmental justice responsibilities seriously. Both Democrats and Republicans in the House had expressed support for the amendment in the days leading up to the vote.

Faced with the prospect of fighting a losing battle, the House Republican leadership decided not to resist the Hastings amendment, and at the last minute it was adopted by voice vote. In addition, Representative Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) offered an amendment to restore the 32 percent cut to EPA's Office of Environmental Justice that President Bush's budget had proposed; the Grijalva amendment was also accepted by the Republican majority without a roll call vote.

We think this is the first time that either body of Congress has specifically recognized and supported E.O. 12898, and told EPA that it must be followed. In any case, this is the first time in many years that either body of Congress has said or done anything positive on environmental justice concerns.

Earthjustice was proud to help lead the successful effort to build support for the Hastings' amendment and will work for its adoption in the Senate.

Keeping Sewage Out of our Waterways
Earthjustice also helped a coalition of clean water and other groups to generate support for a measure to block a November 2003 EPA proposal to allow barely treated sewage to be dumped into our nation's lakes, rivers, and streams during rainy weather. The Bush administration defended its "sewage blending" policy for months. But just hours before the vote, faced with a certain loss, EPA announced that the agency had decided not to finalize the policy after reviewing "all public comments and congressional hearings."

Wisely, Representatives Bart Stupak (D-MI) and Clay Shaw (R-FL) pushed forward with an amendment barring EPA from spending any money to finalize the proposed policy, in order to get Congress on the record in opposition to the dangerous proposal. The Stupak/Shaw amendment passed on a voice vote.

"The EPA's sewage blending proposal would have turned back the clock on 30 years of water protection," Representative Stupak said. "I'm pleased to see the work we've done in Congress has forced the EPA to withdraw their proposal and do their job to protect the environment."

Water treatment plants that have not upgraded their facilities to cope with growing populations often discharge untreated sewage during periods of heavy rain, bypassing their systems to mix partially treated sewage with fully treated wastewater in a process called "blending." While this process may dilute sewage discharges, it increases the amount of inadequately-treated sewage flowing into our rivers and lakes.

Sewage discharges introduce viruses, parasites, toxic chemicals, and other pollutants into our waters, leading to increases in waterborne illnesses, higher drinking water treatment costs, more closures of beaches and shellfish beds, and greater harm to fish, coral reefs and other wildlife. Here at Earthjustice, we'll continue to work towards the day when no American city allows untreated sewage to flow into our nation's waterways.

It's nice to see that even in the tumultuous political atmosphere now buffeting Congress, politicians who care about having a clean and safe environment will work together for positive change. No matter what curveballs the radical right throws their way, Earthjustice will be here to help our green champions in Congress hit home runs.

Cat Lazaroff, Press Secretary for Policy and Legislation