Mayors Say EPA Grudgingly Accepting Affordability as More Than Median Income

摘要

The nation's mayors said the Environmental Protection Agency is slowly coming around to accept that it cannot continue to rely on a median household income threshold as the primary metric for gauging the financial capability of a community to meet its Clean Water Act obligations. Several mayors, speaking at the 82nd annual winter meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, said they also told the EPA that its regional officials don't view af-fordability and flexibility under the Clean Water Act in the same way as the EPA headquarters. Mayor David Berger, of Lima, Ohio, said the regional officials continue to cling to the old ways of enforcing Clean Water Act obligations, expecting that municipalities will comply with all Clean Water Act mandates-repairing combined sewer overflows and meeting water quality standards-regardless of whether they can afford to.