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76-588: The New River , Alamo River, and the Salton Sea of the 21st century started in autumn 1904, when the Colorado River , swollen by seasonal rainfall and snow-melt, flowed through a series of three human-engineered openings in the recently constructed levee bank of the Alamo Canal . The resulting flood poured down the canal and breached an Imperial Valley dike. The sudden influx of water and the lack of any drainage from

152-596: A Colorado mine, and accidentally released over three million gallons of waste water into Cement Creek and the Animas River . In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a branch of the World Health Organization , cited research linking glyphosate , an ingredient of the weed killer Roundup manufactured by the chemical company Monsanto , to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma . In March 2017,

228-570: A 15-year cut of 32%, or 789 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. In 2019 it was voided and replaced by the Affordable Clean Energy rule under the Trump administration, and in 2022 its constitutionality was ruled out by the Supreme Court. In August 2015, the 2015 Gold King Mine waste water spill occurred when EPA contractors examined the level of pollutants such as lead and arsenic in

304-495: A dramatic move to the right, President Ronald Reagan in 1981 appointed Anne Gorsuch as EPA administrator. Gorsuch based her administration of EPA on the New Federalism approach of downsizing federal agencies by delegating their functions and services to the individual states. She believed that EPA was over-regulating business and that the agency was too large and not cost-effective. During her 22 months as agency head, she cut

380-592: A joint House–Senate colloquium was convened by the chairmen of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, Senator Henry M. Jackson , and the House Committee on Science and Astronautics, Representative George P. Miller , to discuss the need for and means of implementing a national environmental policy. Congress enacted the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) and the law

456-602: A lesser rate. The river was named after the Spanish name for the Fremont cottonwood that grows in the region. In most places, the river is a vegetation-choked ravine with a small watercourse at the bottom. The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment has issued a safe eating advisory based on mercury, DDTs, PCBs, and selenium. New River (Mexico%E2%80%93United States) The New River ( Spanish : Río Nuevo ) flows north from near Cerro Prieto , through

532-576: A model of international cooperation, in recent decades, the IBWC has been heavily criticized as an institutional anachronism, bypassed by modern social, environmental, and political issues. After the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the 1990s, industrial manufacturing increasingly contributed to pollution. Mexico's relatively lax environmental regulations on manufacturing plants or maquiladoras , allowed these plants to use

608-587: A national outcry and criminal charges against major steel companies. The US Justice Department in late 1970 began pollution control litigation in cooperation with the new EPA. Congress enacted the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972, better known as the Clean Water Act (CWA). The CWA established a national framework for addressing water quality, including mandatory pollution control standards, to be implemented by

684-503: A public record, making it controversial and difficult to rescind. So they did not open it; rather, they called Johnson and asked him to take back the draft. Johnson rescinded the draft; in July 2008, he issued a new version which did not state that global warming was danger to public welfare. Burnett resigned in protest. In April 2008, the Union of Concerned Scientists said that more than half of

760-509: A salinity of 4.4% (4.4 parts per 100), making it saltier than ocean water (3.5% for Pacific). Many fish species can no longer reproduce or survive in the Salton Sea. Tilapia may be the only fish species able to persist there for a limited time. Without restoration, the Salton Sea will likely increase in toxicity and remain an ecological trap for avian species. Toxic levels of PCBs, DDT, and DDT byproduct DDE regularly appear in sediment samples taken between 2002 and 2012. The modern courses of

836-577: A second term. As a condition for accepting his appointment, Ruckleshaus obtained autonomy from the White House in appointing his senior management team. He then appointed experienced competent professionals to the top management positions, and worked to restore public confidence in the agency. Lee M. Thomas succeeded Ruckelshaus as administrator in 1985. In 1986 Congress passed the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act , which authorized

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912-731: A senior official at the Environmental Protection Agency had worked to quash a review of Roundup's main ingredient, glyphosate, that was to have been conducted by the United States Department of Health and Human Services ." The records show that Monsanto was able to prepare "a public relations assault" on the finding after they were alerted to the determination by Jess Rowland , the head of the EPA's cancer assessment review committee at that time, months in advance. Emails also showed that Rowland "had promised to beat back an effort by

988-568: A total of fourteen states had joined the suit—the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the EPA regulations violated the Clean Air Act. In response, EPA announced plans to propose such standards to replace the vacated Clean Air Mercury Rule, and did so on March 16, 2011. In July 2005 there was a delay in the issuance of an EPA report showing that auto companies were using loopholes to produce less fuel-efficient cars. The report

1064-414: A wide variety of voluntary pollution prevention programs and energy conservation efforts. The agency's budgeted employee level in 2023 is 16,204.1 full-time equivalent (FTE). More than half of EPA's employees are engineers, scientists, and environmental protection specialists; other employees include legal, public affairs, financial, and information technologists. Beginning in the late 1950s and through

1140-581: The 1944 Water Treaty with Mexico, the United States and Mexico agreed to solve border sanitation problems. The International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) was authorized by the two governments to study the pollution of the New River from Mexico. Studies in 1947 and 1948 of the New River led the IBWC to recommend a joint treatment plant constructed in the United States to treat the sewage from Calexico and Mexicali. As Mexicali's population exploded in

1216-519: The Council on Environmental Quality and Atomic Energy Commission . Upon its creation, EPA inherited 84 sites spread across 26 states, of which 42 sites were laboratories. The EPA consolidated these laboratories into 22 sites. In its first year, the EPA had a budget of $ 1.4 billion and 5,800 employees. At its start, the EPA was primarily a technical assistance agency that set goals and standards. Soon, new acts and amendments passed by Congress gave

1292-678: The Imperial Valley in California and is deposited in the Salton Sea . In 2018, construction began on a bollard portion of the Mexico–United States barrier across the river. By 2018, most of the river in Mexicali was covered, but sometimes overflowed its covered riverbanks when it rained. The smell of the New River near the border is often overpowering, particularly at night and during

1368-504: The Senate . The current administrator is Michael S. Regan . The EPA is not a Cabinet department, but the administrator is normally given cabinet rank . The EPA has its headquarters in Washington, D.C. There are regional offices for each of the agency's ten regions, as well as 27 laboratories around the country. The agency conducts environmental assessment , research, and education. It has

1444-576: The 1960s, Congress reacted to increasing public concern about the impact that human activity could have on the environment. Senator James E. Murray introduced a bill, the Resources and Conservation Act (RCA) of 1959, in the 86th Congress . The bill would have established a Council on Environmental Quality in the Executive Office of the President , declared a national environmental policy, and required

1520-498: The 1970s, pollution increased. Due to inadequate sewer infrastructure, the two nations attempted in the 1980s and 1990s to address pollution in this river, as documented by the International Boundary and Water Commission of the U.S. Department of State . The IBWC was established in 1889 to maintain the border, allocate river waters between the two nations, and provide for flood control and water sanitation. Once viewed as

1596-498: The 2009 through 2016 model years. Following notice of violations and potential criminal sanctions, Volkswagen later agreed to a legal settlement and paid billions of US dollars in criminal penalties, and was required to initiate a vehicle buyback program and modify the engines of the vehicles to reduce illegal air emissions. In August 2015, the EPA finalized the Clean Power Plan to regulate emissions from power plants, projecting

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1672-495: The Department of Health and Human Services to conduct its own review." On February 17, 2017, President Donald Trump appointed Scott Pruitt as EPA administrator. The Democratic Party saw the appointment as a controversial move, as Pruitt had spent most of his career challenging environmental regulations and policies. He did not have previous experience in the environmental protection field and had received financial support from

1748-568: The EPA to gather data on toxic chemicals and share this information with the public. EPA also researched the implications of stratospheric ozone depletion. Under Administrator Thomas, EPA joined with several international organizations to perform a risk assessment of stratospheric ozone, which helped provide motivation for the Montreal Protocol, which was agreed to in August 1987. In 1988, during his first presidential campaign, George H. W. Bush

1824-501: The EPA was working on its own standards, but the move has been widely considered an attempt to shield the auto industry from environmental regulation by setting lower standards at the federal level, which would then preempt state laws. California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger , along with governors from 13 other states, stated that the EPA's actions ignored federal law, and that existing California standards (adopted by many states in addition to California) were almost twice as effective as

1900-448: The EPA. The EPA's inspector general had determined that the EPA's regulation of mercury emissions did not follow the Clean Air Act, and that the regulations were influenced by top political appointees. The EPA had suppressed a study it commissioned by Harvard University which contradicted its position on mercury controls. The suit alleged that the EPA's rule exempting coal-fired power plants from "maximum available control technology"

1976-585: The Federal Water Quality Administration, which had previously been transferred from PHS to the Department of the Interior in 1966. A few functions from other agencies were also incorporated into EPA: the formerly independent Federal Radiation Council was merged into it; pesticides programs were transferred from the Department of the Interior, Food and Drug Administration , and Agricultural Research Service ; and some functions were transferred from

2052-681: The Mexico–U.S. border near Calexico, California , its channel contains a stew of about a hundred contaminants : volatile organic compounds , heavy metals including selenium , uranium , arsenic and mercury , pesticides (including DDT ), and PCBs . The waterway also contains pathogens that cause tuberculosis , encephalitis , polio , cholera , hepatitis and typhoid ; levels for many of these contaminants violate United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Cal/EPA standards by several hundredfold. Fecal coliform bacteria have reached 100,000 to 16 million colonies per milliliter at

2128-584: The New River Improvement Project. It involves four main components: According to the Colorado River Regional Water Quality Control Board, once the new wastewater treatment facility is fully operational, it will handle the 10 to 20 million US gallons (38,000 to 76,000 m ) per day of raw sewage currently being discharged into the New River. While this should result in measurably improved water quality of

2204-453: The New River and the Alamo River , and the creation of the Salton Sea , date from the autumn of 1904 when heavy rainfall and snowmelt caused the swollen Colorado River to overrun a set of headgates for the Alamo Canal . The resulting flood poured down the canal and breached an Imperial Valley dyke. The sudden influx of water and the lack of drainage from the basin formed the Salton Sea;

2280-439: The New River as an industrial waste drainage system. Mexicali has become a bustling border city with over 180 maquiladoras . In the 1990s, a joint project was implemented to improve Mexicali's wastewater infrastructure . The EPA paid 55% of a $ 50 million upgrade to Mexicali's sewage treatment facilities, but the improvements did not treat all waste discharges into the river. The residual pollution affects both Mexico and

2356-479: The New River at the border, particularly as it relates to pathogens and nutrients , the binational projects do not address the dumping of trash into the New River and its tributaries , the nutrients and pathogens from Mexicali's Zaragoza wastewater treatment lagoons , the untreated and partially treated discharges of industrial wastes, agricultural runoff from the Mexicali Valley, and urban and storm runoff from

Alamo River - Misplaced Pages Continue

2432-534: The Salton Sea, the largest lake in California. Flow at the border is approximately 200  cu ft/s (5.7  m /s ), and about three times more at the Salton Sea because of agricultural runoff collected along the way. The New River's flow is composed of agricultural and chemical runoff waste from farm industry irrigation in the U.S. (18.4%) and Mexico (51.2%), sewage from Mexicali (29%), and manufacturing plants operating in Mexico (1.4%). Where New River crosses

2508-417: The Salton Sea. Lacking an outlet for its water, the Salton Sea's salinity has increased by approximately 1% per year. Increasing water temperature, salinity and bacterial levels led to massive fish die-offs in 1992, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2006, and 2008, and created ideal breeding grounds for avian botulism , cholera and Newcastle disease , leading to massive avian epizootics 1992–2019. The Salton Sea has

2584-527: The US population. The law required EPA to enforce the standards with the cooperation of state agencies. In October 1976, Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) which, like FIFRA, related to the manufacture, labeling and usage of commercial products rather than pollution. This act gave the EPA the authority to gather information on chemicals and require producers to test them, gave it

2660-474: The United States government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on December 2, 1970, after Nixon signed an executive order . The order establishing the EPA was ratified by committee hearings in the House and Senate. The agency is led by its administrator , who is appointed by the president and approved by

2736-697: The ability to regulate chemical production and use (with specific mention of PCBs ), and required the agency to create the National Inventory listing of chemicals. Congress also enacted the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) in 1976, significantly amending the Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965 . It tasked the EPA with setting national goals for waste disposal, conserving energy and natural resources, reducing waste, and ensuring environmentally sound management of waste. Accordingly,

2812-399: The agency developed regulations for solid and hazardous waste that were to be implemented in collaboration with states. President Jimmy Carter appointed Douglas M. Costle as EPA administrator in 1977. To manage the agency's expanding legal mandates and workload, by the end of 1979 the budget grew to $ 5.4 billion and the workforce size increased to 13,000. In 1980, following

2888-594: The agency in partnership with the states. Congress amended the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) in 1972, requiring EPA to measure every pesticide's risks against its potential benefits. In 1973 President Nixon appointed Russell E. Train , to be the next EPA Administrator. In 1974 Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act , requiring EPA to develop mandatory federal standards for all public water systems , which serve 90% of

2964-553: The agency its regulatory authority. A major expansion of the Clean Air Act was approved in December 1970. EPA staff recall that in the early days there was "an enormous sense of purpose and excitement" and the expectation that "there was this agency which was going to do something about a problem that clearly was on the minds of a lot of people in this country," leading to tens of thousands of resumes from those eager to participate in

3040-579: The agency's Scientific Integrity Official, Francesca Grifo , from testifying at a House committee hearing. EPA offered to send a different representative in place of Grifo and accused the committee of "dictating to the agency who they believe was qualified to speak." The hearing was to discuss the importance of allowing federal scientists and other employees to speak freely when and to whom they want to about their research without having to worry about any political consequences. In September 2019 air pollution standards in California were once again under attack, as

3116-685: The agency. Assistant Administrator Rita Lavelle was fired by Reagan in February 1983 because of her mismanagement of the Superfund program. Gorsuch had increasing confrontations with Congress over Superfund and other programs, including her refusal to submit subpoenaed documents. Gorsuch was cited for contempt of Congress and the White House directed EPA to submit the documents to Congress. Gorsuch and most of her senior staff resigned in March 1983. Reagan then appointed William Ruckelshaus as EPA Administrator for

Alamo River - Misplaced Pages Continue

3192-711: The basin resulted in the formation of the Salton Sea; the rivers had re-created a great inland sea in an area that it had frequently inundated before, the Salton Sink . It took slightly less than two years (March 1905 to February 10, 1907) to control the Colorado River’s inflow to the Alamo Canal and stop the uncontrolled flooding of the Salton Sink, but the canal was effectively channelized with operational headgates by early 1907. The Alamo and New Rivers continued to flow, but at

3268-437: The border checkpoint (possibly more, as this is the measuring capacity threshold), far above the U.S.–Mexico treaty limit of 240 colonies. In 2017 monthly samples from the New River ranged from 12,000 to more than 160,000 per 100 milliliters. California considers water safe for swimming at 400. Highly polluted inflow to the New River and agricultural runoff has resulted in elevated bacterial levels and large algal blooms in

3344-419: The budget of the EPA by 22%, reduced the number of cases filed against polluters, relaxed Clean Air Act regulations, and facilitated the spraying of restricted-use pesticides. She cut the total number of agency employees, and hired staff from the industries they were supposed to be regulating. Environmentalists contended that her policies were designed to placate polluters, and accused her of trying to dismantle

3420-459: The censorship of environmental reports . President Obama appointed Gina McCarthy as EPA administrator in 2013. In 2014, the EPA published its "Tier 3" standards for cars, trucks and other motor vehicles, which tightened air pollution emission requirements and lowered the sulfur content in gasoline. In 2015, the EPA discovered extensive violations by Volkswagen Group in its manufacture of Volkswagen and Audi diesel engine cars, for

3496-446: The channel, whose foam blows into the streets of a Calexico residential area and its downtown. Mosquitoes and other pests thrive in the summer. All of these factors only serve to elevate the contagion risk. In 2006, through another binational project, Mexicali finished building a second wastewater treatment facility to treat the 10 to 20 million US gallons (38,000 to 76,000 m ) per day of raw and partially treated sewage that

3572-438: The city of Mexicali , Baja California , Mexico, into the United States through the city of Calexico, California , towards the Salton Sea . The river channel has existed since pre-historic times. The river as known today formed from a levee failure and massive flooding that filled the Salton Sea. The river flow mostly consists of agricultural runoff , municipal discharge and industrial wastewater . The river has been called

3648-403: The combination of pesticide programs from the United States Department of Agriculture and the United States Department of the Interior . After conducting hearings during that summer, the House and Senate approved the proposal. The EPA was created 90 days before it had to operate, and officially opened its doors on December 2, 1970. The agency's first administrator, William Ruckelshaus , took

3724-484: The discovery of many abandoned or mismanaged hazardous waste sites such as Love Canal , Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act , nicknamed "Superfund." The new law authorized EPA to cast a wider net for parties responsible for sites contaminated by previous hazardous waste disposal and established a funding mechanism for assessment and cleanup. In

3800-424: The dyke was repaired, as the larger channels collected and carried agricultural runoff to the Salton Sea. Although thorough documentation of the pollution before 1960 is not available, records show the New River has been identified as a significant water pollution problem since the late 1940s. Extremely high concentrations of fecal coliform bacteria caused a stench at its entry into the U.S. Under provisions of

3876-420: The environment. The "detailed statement" would ultimately be referred to as an environmental impact statement (EIS). On July 9, 1970, Nixon proposed an executive reorganization that consolidated many environmental responsibilities of the federal government under one agency, a new Environmental Protection Agency. This proposal included merging pollution control programs from a number of departments, such as

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3952-542: The fossil fuel industry. In 2017, the Presidency of Donald Trump proposed a 31% cut to the EPA's budget to $ 5.7 billion from $ 8.1 billion and to eliminate a quarter of the agency jobs. However, this cut was not approved by Congress. Pruitt resigned from the position on July 5, 2018, citing "unrelenting attacks" due to ongoing ethics controversies. President Trump appointed Andrew R. Wheeler as EPA Administrator in 2019. On July 17, 2019, EPA management prohibited

4028-506: The mighty effort to clean up America's environment. When EPA first began operation, members of the private sector felt strongly that the environmental protection movement was a passing fad. Ruckelshaus stated that he felt pressure to show a public which was deeply skeptical about government's effectiveness, that EPA could respond effectively to widespread concerns about pollution. The burning Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1969 led to

4104-599: The most severely polluted river of its size in the United States. Several projects have begun to reduce and mitigate the levels of pollution in the river, including upgrades to sewage treatment infrastructure and enclosure of the river channel. The New River channel begins at a volcanic lake near Cerro Prieto . Today this lake feeds the Cerro Prieto Geothermal Power Station . The river flows north 15 miles (24 km) through Baja California, and another 66 miles (106 km) through California into

4180-540: The municipality. Mexico intends to reclaim effluent from the treatment plant for onsite green belts , resulting in a 20 million US gallons (76,000 m ) per day decrease in the flow of the New River at the border, in addition to the projected 10 million US gallons (38,000 m ) per day decrease in flow in the river at the border when the InterGen and Sempra Energy power plants reach capacity in Mexicali. The estimated decrease in flow due to projects pursuant to

4256-504: The nearly 1,600 EPA staff scientists who responded online to a detailed questionnaire reported they had experienced incidents of political interference in their work. The survey included chemists, toxicologists, engineers, geologists and experts in other fields of science. About 40% of the scientists reported that the interference had been more prevalent in the last five years than in previous years. President Barack Obama appointed Lisa P. Jackson as EPA administrator in 2009. In 2010 it

4332-815: The number of waste sites that are remediated in a given year. (In 2021 Congress reauthorized an excise tax on chemical manufacturers. ) Major legislative updates during the Clinton Administration were the Food Quality Protection Act and the 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act. President George W. Bush appointed Christine Todd Whitman as EPA administrator in 2001. Whitman was succeeded by Mike Leavitt in 2003 and Stephen L. Johnson in 2005. In March 2005 nine states (California, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, New Mexico and Vermont) sued

4408-596: The oath of office on December 4, 1970. EPA's primary predecessor was the former Environmental Health Divisions of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS), and its creation caused one of a series of reorganizations of PHS that occurred during 1966–1973. From PHS, EPA absorbed the entire National Air Pollution Control Administration, as well as the Environmental Control Administration's Bureau of Solid Waste Management, Bureau of Water Hygiene, and part of its Bureau of Radiological Health. It also absorbed

4484-552: The passage of the Superfund law in 1980, an excise tax had been levied on the chemical and petroleum industries, to support the cleanup trust fund. Congressional authorization of the tax was due to expire in 1995. Although Browner and the Clinton Administration supported continuation of the tax, Congress declined to reauthorize it. Subsequently, the Superfund program was supported only by annual appropriations, greatly reducing

4560-417: The preparation of an annual environmental report. The conservation movement was weak at the time and the bill did not pass Congress. The 1962 publication of Silent Spring , a best-selling book by Rachel Carson , alerted the public about the detrimental effects on animals and humans of the indiscriminate use of pesticide chemicals. In the years following, Congress discussed possible solutions. In 1968,

4636-419: The presiding judge in a litigation brought about by people who claim to have developed glyphosate-related non-Hodgkin's lymphoma opened Monsanto emails and other documents related to the case, including email exchanges between the company and federal regulators. According to The New York Times , the "records suggested that Monsanto had ghostwritten research that was later attributed to academics and indicated that

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4712-442: The proposed federal standards. It was reported that Johnson ignored his own staff in making this decision. In 2007 it was reported that EPA research was suppressed by career managers. Supervisors at EPA's National Center for Environmental Assessment required several paragraphs to be deleted from a peer-reviewed journal article about EPA's integrated risk information system , which led two co-authors to have their names removed from

4788-419: The public welfare—a decision that would trigger the first national mandatory global-warming regulations. Associate Deputy Administrator Jason Burnett e-mailed the draft to the White House. White House aides—who had long resisted mandatory regulations as a way to address climate change—knew the gist of what Johnson's finding would be, Burnett said. They also knew that once they opened the attachment, it would become

4864-414: The publication, and the corresponding author, Ching-Hung Hsu, to leave EPA "because of the draconian restrictions placed on publishing". The 2007 report stated that EPA subjected employees who author scientific papers to prior restraint , even if those papers are written on personal time. In December 2007 EPA administrator Johnson approved a draft of a document that declared that climate change imperiled

4940-438: The responsibility of maintaining and enforcing national standards under a variety of environmental laws , in consultation with state, tribal, and local governments. EPA enforcement powers include fines, sanctions , and other measures. It delegates some permitting, monitoring, and enforcement responsibility to U.S. states and the federally recognized tribes . The agency also works with industries and all levels of government in

5016-505: The rivers had re-created a great inland sea in the Salton Sink , which had frequently flooded. Nearly two years passed before workers could control the Colorado River's flow and stop the flooding, but the river was effectively dammed in the early part of 1907 and returned to its normal course. The flood significantly enlarged the channels of the New and Alamo Rivers. Some water still flowed after

5092-447: The summer when temperatures can reach 120 °F (49 °C). The New River is so heavily polluted that technicians usually wear two sets of gloves, aprons, and other protective clothing when testing the water. US Border Patrol agents have instructions to stay out of the river except in emergencies. In January 2019, chemicals, heavy metals, and raw sewage was found to be in the New River. Discarded trash, dead animals and other waste line

5168-662: The terms of the Quantification Settlement Agreement , and water transfer between the Imperial Irrigation District and the San Diego County Water Authority , will have devastating water quality impacts on the Salton Sea . According to the Imperial Irrigation District , although water pollution is a severe problem at the border, by the time the river enters the Salton Sea, the issue is "not significant"; water quality improves as

5244-420: The water makes its way north due to the addition of agricultural drain water and through natural cleansing occurring in the intervening 60 miles (97 km). Agricultural pesticides have never been detected in the Salton Sea at levels high enough to cause a public health concern. United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) is an independent agency of

5320-608: Was based on ideas that had been discussed in the 1959 and subsequent hearings. The Richard Nixon administration made the environment a policy priority in 1969-1971 and created two new agencies, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and EPA. Nixon signed NEPA into law on January 1, 1970. The law established the CEQ in the Executive Office of the President. NEPA required that a detailed statement of environmental impacts be prepared for all major federal actions significantly affecting

5396-756: Was being discharged into the river. In May 2005, the New River was designated as one of two environmental justice water quality pilot projects for the State of California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) to try to address the various pollution sources collaboratively between the various stakeholders. The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment has issued a safe eating advisory for any fish caught in New River due to elevated levels of mercury , DDTs , PCBs , and selenium . On July 25, 2005, Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 387, introduced by Senator Denise Moreno Ducheny (D-San Diego), which provided funding for

5472-500: Was illegal, and additionally charged that the EPA's system of cap-and-trade to lower average mercury levels would allow power plants to forego reducing mercury emissions, which they objected would lead to dangerous local hotspots of mercury contamination even if average levels declined. Several states also began to enact their own mercury emission regulations. Illinois's proposed rule would have reduced mercury emissions from power plants by an average of 90% by 2009. In 2008—by which point

5548-592: Was reflected in the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act and in new approaches by the agency, such as a greater emphasis on watershed -based approaches in Clean Water Act programs. In 1992 EPA and the Department of Energy launched the Energy Star program, a voluntary program that fosters energy efficiency. Carol Browner was appointed EPA administrator by President Bill Clinton and served from 1993 to 2001. Major projects during Browner's term included: Since

5624-489: Was reported that a $ 3 million mapping study on sea level rise was suppressed by EPA management during both the Bush and Obama administrations, and managers changed a key interagency report to reflect the removal of the maps. Between 2011 and 2012, some EPA employees reported difficulty in conducting and reporting the results of studies on hydraulic fracturing due to industry and governmental pressure, and were concerned about

5700-536: Was supposed to be released the day before a controversial energy bill was passed and would have provided backup for those opposed to it, but the EPA delayed its release at the last minute. EPA initiated its voluntary WaterSense program in 2006 to encourage water efficiency through the use of a special label on consumer products. In 2007 the state of California sued the EPA for its refusal to allow California and 16 other states to raise fuel economy standards for new cars. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson claimed that

5776-544: Was vocal about environmental issues. Following his election victory, he appointed William K. Reilly , an environmentalist, as EPA Administrator in 1989. Under Reilly's leadership, the EPA implemented voluntary programs and initiated the development of a "cluster rule" for multimedia regulation of the pulp and paper industry. At the time, there was increasing awareness that some environmental issues were regional or localized in nature, and were more appropriately addressed with sub-national approaches and solutions. This understanding

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