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GRASSROOTS
RESISTANCE TO TMDL In Senate testimony on February 23, even Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman felt compelled to affirm that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proposal to include agriculture and forestry under the Clean Water Act's "Total Maximum Daily Load" (TMDL) point-source pollution rules lacks a credible comprehensive cost estimate, although he disavowed a senior USDA official's letter to EPA questioning the proposal's legal authority. Still, it is convenient to have Secretary Glickman's observation that "Farmers demand clarity . . . What they don't need is more uncertainty." Meanwhile, grassroots resistance to the proposal gained momentum throughout February, as EPA's insistence that the proposal "would be limited to a very narrow circumstances and only as a last resort" reminded alarmed observers of similar reassurances with respect to the Endangered Species Act. Don Wesson, a Potlatch mill worker representing the Pulp and Paperworkers Resource Council, told a crowd of 3,000-by some counts 4,000-at a February 7 Texarkana, Arkansas public meeting on the rule, "This will be an open door to environmental groups to lock up log sales by challenging these EPA permits in court, thereby costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawsuits with months and even years between sales." He also challenged EPA's double-talk on the proposal: "EPA Assistant Administrator Charles Fox calls this the most ambitious proposal yet to protect America's water quality in our nation's history, yet he claims its impact will be very minor." (For the complete text of Don's prepared remarks, click here. To view the Texarkana Gazette's February 8 account, visit www.texarkanagazette.com/archives, and enter the search term "EPA".) Return to Public Policy Archive Forest Resources Association
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