Administration sued over arsenic standards

Friday, June 29, 2001 | 10:27 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE SERVICES

WASHINGTON -- An environmental group is taking the Bush administration to court over its decision to suspend tighter arsenic standards for drinking water that had been adopted by former President Clinton.

Fallon, 60 miles east of Reno, has high levels of arsenic in its drinking water and is under federal orders to clean it up.

The Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Environmental Protection Agency and its administrator, Christie Whitman, for ignoring a June 22 congressional deadline for having a new plan to reduce arsenic levels.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and several of her Democratic colleagues -- including Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer of New York, Jon Corzine of New Jersey, Paul Wellstone of Minnesota and Harry Reid of Nevada -- said they would file papers in support of the NRDC's lawsuit.

"When Congress sets a deadline, we don't mean for it to be ignored," Boxer said Thursday. "Clearly, what the Bush administration is doing is very harmful to the health of our people ... and they are turning their back on the law."

The goal is to force the EPA to revert to the Clinton standard that would allow no more than 10 parts per billion of arsenic in tap water. The current standard is 50 ppb. Friday was the deadline set for the new rules Congress mandated to go into effect.

"This decision has left those concerned with public health and safety no other option than to seek legal action," Reid, the second ranking Democrat in the Senate, said. "But the Bush administration has completely ignored this deadline and, in so doing, has thumbed its nose at Congress."

The twin actions, alleging the administration violated provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Administrative Procedures Act by suspending the Clinton standard, are to be filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Erik D. Olson, a senior attorney with the NRDC, whose prior lawsuits have pushed the EPA to obey deadlines, said Bush's action threatens the health of millions of Americans.