EPA Rejects Claims Of 'Federalizing' Maine's Water Quality Standards

摘要

EPA Region 1 is rejecting claims that it is trying to "federalize" Maine's water quality standards (WQS), explaining in a letter to the state's environment chief that the agency has a statutory duty to ensure Clean Water Act (CWA) requirements are met and raising concerns the state is more interested in litigating a long-running dispute over the scope of state authority rather than working cooperatively with EPA. "Let me be clear - EPA has no desire to 'federalize' the State of Maine's water quality standards," EPA Regionl Administrator Curt Spalding writes in a Sept. 21 letter to Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Acting Commissioner Avery Day. Relevant documents are available on InsideEPA.com. See page 2 for details.