8/23/2024
WT Staff
 August 23, 2024 1014 am EDT
How the Environmental Protection Agency is set to safeguard drinking water sources
Source Water Protection
The US EPA leads pollution prevention for the protection of the nation's drinking water sources, assisting municipal wastewater treatment facilities, industry and the public to comply with environmental laws defined under the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Shore Protection Act and Marine Protection and Sanctuaries Research Act, among others.
In the most serious cases of non-compliance, where deliberate acts or negligence impacts water, the EPA Office of Criminal Enforcement Forensics and Training investigates cases, coordinating with State agents to collect evidence, engage in forensic analyses informing federal district courts. The EPA Criminal Enforcement unit was established in 1982, granted full law enforcement authority for the above mentioned Acts in 1988. Clean Water Act criminal prosecutions featured here cover the full timeline of EPA enforcement actions by state, to the present day.
See the CrimeBox for cases of EPA enforcement of Clean Water Act, a weekly series profiling defendants, circumstances, judgements and sentencing issued by federal district court judges here, taken from the 72 CWA prosecutions in California, from 1989 to present.
Past CrimeBox briefs here pertaining to CWA historic prosecutions in New York, Ohio, Georgia and Louisiana.
WT HAB Tracker from the satellite monitoring program of the NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science(NCCOS) and State sources where available
From the NYS DEC notifications center Friday August 23, 2024, one hundred and thirty-one confirmed bluegreen blooms are on the radar, down from 132 yesterday. First HABs of the season were confirmed for Brown's Lake and Onondaga Lake yesterday. See the impacted water bodies list here.
The last image of Lake Champlain HAB was snapped Aug 22 at unknown wind speed, another completely cloud obscured image. A previous shot from August 18 showed a small area of the widespread HAB in Baie Missisquoi with a high concentration 600 thousand cells per 100 ml. The last completely clear image was acquired August 14, the concentration range in the northeast water ranging from 1 to 3 million cells per 100 ml. See our NY HAB report for more details here.
Lake Erie west basin
The latest satellite image of Lake Erie West basin was captured August 22 at wind speed, 5.8 mph, another clear image of west basin illuminating the bluegreen along the Ohio and Michigan shorelines extending to the east edge of the photo frame, approximately 50 nautical miles wide by 20 nautical miles deep into the lake, past the international border at the widest point, average around 10 nm wide, easily 500 square miles of water involved with this bloom.
HAB concentration is highest in Maumee Bay 3 million cells per 100 ml near Shoreland, Maumee Bay State Park similar concentration 2 to 3 million. Magee Marsh Wildlife Area is another hot spot up to 2 million cells from shore and 3 to 4 nm into the lake. Catawba Island is experiencing high concentration up to 2 million cells in the east side inlet and marinas. Sandusky Bay HAB is dispersed lakewide mats around the 900 thousand cells per 100 ml concentration, a 3-4 nm band of HAB lakeside of Cedar Point runs from Catawba Island and Marblehead to surround the islands, extending east and out of the frame around 200 thousand cells per 100 ml. See the latest NCCOS satellite image of Lake Erie west basin here.
Louisiana: Heating up in Lac des Allemands and Bayou Fortier, lakewide bluegreen increased in concentration again overnight. This latest capture from the NCCOS is dated August 22, taken at wind speed 8.9 mph. The entire water bodies are over 4 million cells per 100 ml concentration now, Lac Allemands, Bayou Fortier and Lake Fields heading for the top of the color scale for concentrations we can no longer quantify. The local environmental health authorities may have cyanotoxin test results available, more to follow. Lakes Verret and Palourde lakewide HABs edge upward 900 thousand cells, Black Bay also increasing in concentration, here seen 1 million cells per 100 ml. Check out the latest satellite image of southeast Louisiana water bodies from NCCOS here.
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