Living Green

EPA budget 'an insult,' GOP senator says

WASHINGTON — Sen. George V. Voinovich sharply criticized EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson Wednesday, telling him that "this budget you've submitted is an insult."

Voinovich, R-Ohio, said the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed cuts in successful cleanup programs while failing to provide funds to help economically strapped communities meet required federal pollution-control standards.

"If the federal government is going to impose these costly mandates on struggling state and local governments, then it should provide funding and flexibility for compliance of those mandates," he said.

At a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Voinovich said the Bush administration's proposed $7.14 billion EPA budget for fiscal year 2009 is "woefully inadequate" in meeting the nation's wastewater infrastructure needs.

He expressed dismay at a proposed decrease in funding for the Great Lakes Legacy Act — down to $35 million from the $49.6 million that the EPA projected two years ago.

"This program shows results — hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of contaminated sediments have been removed from the Great Lakes — and I strongly encourage you to work to increase funding for this program," Voinovich told Johnson.

He accused the EPA of operating in a "cocoon," unaware that Ohio's economy is weakening and that the agency's rules are making matters worse.

"EPA is requiring the city of Fremont, population of 26,000 people — 49 percent are considered low-income — to spend $63 million" on wastewater treatment, he said. These residents' sewer rate increases will be 150 percent, he said.

"Administrator, we are asking our communities to do the impossible," Voinovich told Johnson. "EPA is simply not stepping up to the plate to assist the thousands of communities across the country facing substantial costs to comply with EPA rules."