Clean water bill wins house approval

Last week`s house passage of a Clean Water Act rewrite marks the biggest advance so far of the risk and cost-benefit agenda in an environmental law. It requires cost-benefit analyses of all major water regulations. {open_quotes}This is the first major environmental statute to incorporate those principles,{close_quotes} says a CMA-spokesperson. CMA praises the bill for encouraging pollution prevention and innovative technology by making it easier to obtain permit variances; eliminating overlapping federal and state pretreatment requirements; and making the Great Lakes Initiative a guidance document instead of a mandatory requirement. The bill`s future is uncertain, since the chairman of the Senate Environment Committee sees little wrong with the current law and is uninterested in pursuing a broad reauthorization, and President Clinton`s environmental aides are recommending a veto.