Agency makes Ohio River water quality standards voluntary
The multistate agency that for the past 60 years has set water quality standards protecting the Ohio River approved industry-backed changes Thursday to make those rules voluntary.
The Ohio River Sanitation Commission, known by the acronym ORSANCO, voted 19-2 with one abstention to make the changes at a meeting in Covington, Ky., even though comments at three public hearings this spring totaled 4,150 opposed and just nine in support.
Jordan Lubetkin, a regional spokesman for the National Wildlife Federation, said the commission presented no analysis, justification or data supporting the decision to make the standards voluntary.
“This is a monumental step backwards that will jeopardize the health of the Ohio River,” Mr. Lubetkin said. “The commissioners should be ashamed.”
Mr. Lubetkin said the Ohio River continues to face threats from sewage contamination, industry pollutants and farm runoff, resulting in drinking water problems, fish consumption advisories, and restrictions on swimming and boating.
ORSANCO Executive Director Richard Harrison said in a phone interview Thursday that the commission remains committed to protecting the river’s water quality but wanted to give states different ways to do that.
“ORSANCO and the member states largely adopt [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] criteria,” Mr. Harrison said. “This change gives them the flexibilities they needed in terms of
implementing those programs.”
Pennsylvania is represented on the commission by Davitt Woodwell, president of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council; Charles Duritsa, retired southwest regional director at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection; and Patrick McDonnell, DEP secretary. Jennifer Orr-Greene, from the DEP’s office of water resources planning, attended representing Mr. McDonnell. All three Pennsylvania representatives voted in favor of the revision.
The two votes against were from George Elmaraghy, one of two federal representatives, and Douglas Conroe, executive director of the Chautauqua Lake Association Inc., representing New York.
Mr. Woodwell said, “This is something that, in my mind, keeps the standards in place. The proposal was characterized by some people as voluntary, but it’s not. States still have to protect water quality and meet ORSANCO standards, but they have options on how to do that. This doesn’t roll back protections on the main stem of the river in my opinion.”
Critics said that while the standards remain, the mandate that states use those standards in their water permitting is gone, making them guidelines rather than rules.
ORSANCO was established in 1948 to improve and protect water quality in the eight states along the 981-mile “working river” that flows from Pittsburgh to Cairo, Ill., where it joins the Mississippi River. It has set standards to limit discharges of heavy metals and hazardous chemicals from industrial facilities and coal-burning power plants, improving water quality in the river, which provides drinking water for more than 5 million people.
At a public hearing April 1 in Pittsburgh, one of three held by the commission in Ohio River watershed states, 17 people offered comments and none supported the proposal. Several said it was driven by the shale gas industry and plastics manufacturers that wanted fewer regulations on wastewater discharges.
ORSANCO’s review of the pollution standards began four years ago and its initial proposal in July 2018 would have eliminated those rules completely.
Public opposition caused the commission to pull back that proposal, commission Chairman Ron Potesta of West Virginia said at the April hearing, and substitute a measure that allows member states “discretion” in meeting them.
Among the thousands of public comments in opposition to the changes were those from the mayor of Evansville, Ind.; the Ohio Environmental Council; the Ohio and Illinois chapters of the Sierra Club; Greater Cincinnati Water Works; and Lawrenceville-based Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services, which represents a number of property owners in disputes with shale gas development companies.
“ORSANCO’s new proposal maintains the Pollution Control Standards, but eliminates the mandate that states adopt and implement those standards in their water permitting,” Josh Eisenfeld of Fair Shake wrote. “In short, it maintains the [standards], but turns them into guidance as opposed to mandates.
“This will result in inconsistent standards between states, increasing the states’ vulnerability to political pressure, and facilitates a race to the bottom as states seek to become more attractive to industrial development.”