Washington Insider - Thursday

By DTN's Washington Insider

Here's a quick monitor of Washington farm and trade policy issues from DTN's well-placed observer.

Inhofe Claims Dibs on Senate Environment Chairmanship if GOP Wins Senate Majority

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., this week told the press that he is virtually certain to once again become chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee if Republicans win control of the Senate this November. Inhofe was chairman of the committee from January 2003 through December 2006 and ranking minority member from January 2007 through December 2010.

Inhofe's claim to the chairmanship is certain to receive a great deal of attention from environmental groups inasmuch as he is known as the Senate's most vocal climate change skeptic and a long-time adversary of current committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.

Coincidentally, scientists at the United Nations World Meteorological Organization this week reported the largest single-year increase in carbon dioxide in 20 years took place in 2013, and total concentrations of the greenhouse gas are now set to cross the 400 parts-per-million mark as early as next year. The 400 ppm threshold has been termed a "tipping point" by scientists — including James Hansen, the former director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies — at which changes to the climate are believed to be irreversible.

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Rogers Says Continuing Resolution Will Extend Ex-Im Bank to June 30

The question of how long House Republicans would consider extending the charter of the U.S. Export-Import Bank appears to have been answered this week as House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., said the House stopgap funding bill would extend the charter until June 30. However, the underlying continuing resolution itself will run only until midnight on Thursday, Dec. 11. This means that when Congress returns for a lame duck session in November, it will need to either approve individual appropriations bills or one large omnibus appropriations bill covering the entire government or another continuing resolution that would fund the government into early 2015.

Rogers also said the continuing resolution would include the $88 million the White House wants to combat the Ebola virus as well as provisions to give federal agencies more flexibility in how they use money to address problems at the U.S.-Mexico border (although the measure provides no additional money for actions along the border).

House members are known to be eager to leave Washington to return to campaigning for reelection in November. As a consequence, most legislative actions over the next week are expected to be relatively non-controversial ones requiring only quick consideration.

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Washington Insider: Post-Toledo Water Issues

Earlier this week, the House passed with a large, bipartisan majority a bill to block the administration from implementing an Environmental Protection Agency rule intended to clarify which streams and waterways are shielded from development under the Clean Water Act.

Agriculture groups and farm-state politicians are making enormous amounts of political hay from EPA's proposed rule by claiming it is an example is a terrible bureaucratic overreach. The House approved the regulatory pushback bill, 262-152 and 35 Democrats joined 227 Republicans in support of the measure. It is not expected to advance in the Senate and the White House is threatening a veto if it does.

In spite of the runaway vote, there were points made in opposition. For example, Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, called the legislation a "death bill" and waved a jar of algae from Lake Erie. She said similar algae had built up around an intake valve for the city water treatment plant for Toledo, Ohio, forcing city officials to warn residents not to drink city water for three days.

And, press reports during the last few days continue to emphasize that the algae that turned Lake Erie green and produced toxins that fouled tap water for 400,000 people in the Toledo area has become a big headache for those who keep drinking water safe in other cities across the country.

Apparently, in many cases, there are no federal standards on safe levels for drinking algae-tainted water and no guidelines for treating or testing it, either. Kelly Frey, who oversees a municipal system in Ohio that draws drinking water from the lake, said he is Googling for answers. "We go home and spend our nights on the Internet trying to find how other places manage it."

Spurred by the water emergency that saw thousands lining up for water in Toledo for two days in early August, a growing chorus of consumers is calling for the EPA to help control microcystin, the toxin that contaminated that city's water and which can cause headaches or vomiting when swallowed. It also can kill dogs and livestock.

"There needs to be one consistent standard," said Dan Wyant, director of Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality. And, water standards are only the first step: environmental regulators from Ohio, Indiana and Michigan met with EPA officials last month, asking the agency to press not only for clear water quality standards, but also for a strategy for reducing the pollutants that help the algae thrive.

A part of the public health aspect of this problem is that algae outbreaks — some that leave behind a variety of toxins and some that don't — are occurring increasingly in every state, fouling rivers and lakes of all sizes, according to press reports. For example, Iowa's largest city, Des Moines, uses water from two rivers, both of which have had high levels of algae-fueled toxins on separate occasions in recent years. The worry is what would happen if those two drinking water sources are contaminated at the same time, experts say.

The number of city water supplies could be vulnerable to toxins from algae is difficult to pinpoint, observers note. Those that use groundwater are not at risk, but about two-thirds of the nation's public drinking water comes from lakes, rivers and manmade reservoirs.

Also, conditions have to be just right for harmful algal blooms. The water needs a large dose of nutrients feeding the algae, such as phosphorus from farm fertilizers, livestock manure and sewage overflows. Heavy rainstorms that wash pollutants into the water and warm weather help the algae grow, too. In the Ohio outbreak, many public officials were quick to conclude that farm runoff had played a major role, and there have been numerous proposals there to limit use of certain fertilizers in some areas as a result.

Overall, there is something of a disconnect in all of this. Farmers and their representatives — including 13 Democrats from the House Ag Committee — are pushing hard against EPA for attempting to define its legal obligations for regulation of "waters of the United States" under the Clean Water Act. At the same time, the engineers and others that manage the some two thirds of the nation's drinking water say they lack information and standards to keep that water pure — and, many are now saying that polluted waterways and farm run-off are a big part of the problem.

If you think this is a new kind of confrontation waiting to happen, and that the image of agriculture as the nation's best conservationist could take a serious hit if national water problems continue, you would not be alone. There is no doubt that EPA can be heavy handed, even obnoxious, at times, and this may well be one of those. But, threats to large amounts of the nation's drinking water is also a problem that can muscle its way to the top of almost any priority list. Thus, producers will need powerful strategies to deal with their role in dealing with that issue if it takes on the weight many expect, Washington Insider believes.

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