Lisa Jackson at the National Press Club

Kathleen forwarded this article published in Greenwire (a subscription service). I have edited it down to a few exerpts. Other articles on the topic can be found at:
prnewswire.com
watertechonline.com

Lisa Jackson's speech from yesterday's event--featured in today's Greenwire.

U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson called on Congress yesterday to pass legislation that would set clear boundaries for federal wetland regulators. The federal regulatory scheme for wetlands has been a mess since the Supreme Court's fractured 2006 Rapanos-Carabell decision.
"There is anything but clarity on whether water means water and what wetlands are regulated," Jackson said at the screening of a PBS documentary on water pollution at the National Press Club in Washington. Wetlands are protected under the Clean Water Act as habitat for wildlife, buffers for coastal storms, sponges for pollution and recharge areas for aquifers.

Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Sens. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) last week introduced a bill they say would restore Clean Water Act protections for many wetlands excluded after Rapanos and the 2001 Supreme Court decision, Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Jackson also said EPA needs to re-examine its policies on concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs. "We need change," she said. "We need change in everything from policy to enforcement." CAFOs are considered major contributors of nutrients to waterways. Excessive nutrients overfertilize waters, spurring algal blooms and lowering levels of dissolved oxygen that aquatic life needs to survive.

EPA predicts the CAFO regulation will prevent 56 million pounds of phosphorus, 110 million pounds of nitrogen and 2 billion pounds of sediment from entering streams, lakes and other waters each year.