NWEA Lawsuit Forces EPA Action on Deschutes River Clean-Up
After failing to either approve or disapprove the Deschutes River TMDL clean-up plan developed by Washington Department of Ecology’s for two and a half years, EPA partially approved and partially disapproved the plan in response to the court order in the NWEA case. EPA approved most of the clean-up plans for temperature pollution but it disapproved those for dissolved oxygen, pH, fine sediment, and bacteria. EPA is now on the hook to develop replacements for those plans it disapproved. The Clean Water Act gives the agency 30 days.
Earlier this year EPA was rebuked by a federal judge after attempting to outmaneuver a lawsuit filed NWEA to clean-up the Deschutes River. The Clean Water Act has strict deadlines that reflect Congressional concern about cleaning up unsafe levels of water pollution, including a 30-day deadline for acting on state proposed clean-up plans.
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