Water Pollution Policies and the American States by Hoornbeek John A.;

Author:Hoornbeek, John A.; [HOORNBEEK]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 3407203
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2011-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Procedural Compliance: State Implementation of the 319 Program

Assessing procedural compliance with Congress's directives in Section 319 of the CWA is relatively easy. One need only determine whether the states developed and submitted acceptable assessments, management plans, and grant applications. If states conducted the required assessments and developed management plans in a timely manner, they complied; if they did not, they were effectively shirking Congress's direction in the CWA. If they complied with these orders, they became eligible for grants and were fully compliant with the procedural directives of the statute if they participated in the grant program.

Congress required the states to take several actions when it passed Section 319 of the 1987 Water Quality Act (WQA). First, under Section 319 (a), Congress ordered the states to assess the waters within their borders and identify those waters that were unlikely to meet water quality standards due to non-point source water pollution. A report containing these state assessments was then to be submitted to the EPA administrator for approval. While few states met the statutory requirement that these assessments be completed by August 1988—only a year and a half after passage of the 1987 Water Quality Act (USEPA, 1992, p. 6), all fifty states had submitted their assessments by 1992 (USEPA, 1992, p. 1). Thus, while many states were tardy in meeting the statutory requirements, all fifty states did meet these non-point source assessment requirements within several years of the date that the WQA was signed into law. In addition, while all states were required to conduct the assessments, the assessments themselves were to reflect the variable situations present in the states—a structure designed to catalyze state action rather than impose predesigned solutions to variable state problems.

A second and similar line of federal intervention and state response is evident for the non-point source management plans required under Section 319 (b). Congress required that these management plans contain a state selected set of elements, including best management practices, programs to achieve non-point source water pollution improvements, implementation schedules, legal authorities for action, financing mechanisms, state expertise, and watershed-by-watershed application of the programs described. Thus, while the statute includes a direct order for NPS management plans, it is again catalytic in structure. States have wide discretion to determine the substantive approaches taken to implement the order. The required management plans were to be submitted to the EPA administrator for approval by January 1990. By roughly that date, EPA had fully approved forty-two state and territorial management plans and partially approved twelve others. By 1994, EPA had fully approved the remaining state programs (USEPA, 1994, p. 3). Again, while some states were tardy in meeting these requirements, all fifty states met the requirements within several years of the statutory deadline. One possible explanation for this relatively high level of (eventual) compliance was the congressional requirement in 319 (h) that state eligibility for non-point source water pollution grants be predicated on EPA approval of the state's management plan.

Finally, because all fifty states submitted acceptable management plans, all states were eligible to receive 319 (h) grants.

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