Refreshing! -- Try an 'Eckman float'

EPA says sewage blending not a 'long-term' solution; dumps proposed wastewater regulation change

By GEOFF DAVIDIAN
Editor,  ShorewoodVillage.com
SHOREWOOD, Wis. (May 21, 2005) -- Three months after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's November 2004 proposal to help communities meet wastewater standards by removing restrictions on dumping untreated sewage in waterways, several Shorewood trustees supported joining a popular movement opposing the EPA's suggested policy change.

Last February, four trustees refused to sign on to the popular movement, endorsed by 64 members of congress, opposing the EPA's lifting of limits. Letter

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Regressive Trustee Ellen Eckman sided with the Bush Administration's environmental team and balked at the suggestion, wanting to know where the background material was, the status of the proposal, the timetable, deadline and other information before she would support the measure that sought to keep harmful pathogens from carrying "viruses and parasites such Hepatitis A and Giardia" into the waterways.

Eckman, and trustees Guy Johnson, Michael Phinney, along with former Trustee Jim Rice refused to support the measure. President Mark Kohlenberg endorsed the Lang-O'Brien position.

Giardia

At the Feb. 7, 2005 board meeting, Eckman said she would contact the offices of senators Feingold and Kohl to gather the information she criticized supporters of the measure for not providing, but she never reported back to the board with the information she demanded be known before taking a stand on the public health issue.

Perhaps the EPA didn't know that Eckman had not made up her mind yet, or that she perhaps had not yet checked with her handlers on how to appear to not be regressive while blocking environmentally sound policy, but the federal agency on Friday announced it was looking at "other options to address pollutant discharges during wet weather conditions," after receiving more than 98,000 public comments.

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