US EPA Treats Hawaii Like Third World Basket Case So Clean Water Legal Action Lacking
Environmental attorneys have sued the state in the past in order to force action on water quality. But even they have little inclination to take on the Ala Wai Canal again.
They say there is no federal requirement to shut down the canal. The state is required to come up with a federally approved plan to reduce the bacteria counts, which it hasn't done, and the EPA, which has the power to intervene, hasn't made the state comply, environmental advocates say.
That means the only recourse is to sue the state for failing to comply with Clean Water Act regulations, they say.
Both state and federal officials said the lack of resources is the real problem and that the state health department doesn't have enough people or money to address all the water pollution throughout the state.
Right now the state’s priorities are on tackling pollution in areas such as Hanalei Bay on Kauai, where the water contains high bacteria counts, and west Maui, where injection wells could be polluting the nearshore waters, says Watson Okubo, who supervises water monitoring for the state health department’s clean water branch.
Dean Higuchi, a spokesman for the EPA, acknowledged that the state was required by federal law to come up with a plan to reduce the bacteria levels in the Ala Wai Canal. But the EPA has no intention of cracking down. He said that the state's limited resources could be put to better use in other areas.
“The Ala Wai (watershed) is a very large, large area that will take an immense amount of resources,” he said. "If you sink all your resources into the Ala Wai, then others get neglected.”
Daniel Cooper, an attorney for San Francisco-based Lawyers for Clean Water, said that the Clean Water Act doesn't have "a lack of resources exception."
“So the state says, ‘Oh it doesn’t matter.’ But they are violating federal law right now,” Cooper said.
He said it’s “disgraceful” for the EPA to take the position it has no legal obligation to try to force the state to comply.
No comments:
New comments are not allowed.