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This article presents information regarding U.S. President George W. Bush's $2.57-trillion budget plan for fiscal year 2006 that asks for severe cuts in many infrastructure accounts. Budget panel Democrats blasted the Bush blueprint. David Bauer, American Road & Transportation Builders Association vice president for government relations, calls the White House proposal a positive step, but notes that there weren't sufficient votes last year to pass a $284-billion bill. The roughest fight may be over Environmental Protection Agency water infrastructure, where Bush wants to slash aid to Clean Water state revolving funds by 34%, to $730 million.

U.S. President George W. Bush administration decision to back away from enforcing certain air pollution rules that determine when power plants must install new emission controls not only may harm the environment, but will severely hamper the bottom line of construction firms and engineers who retrofit those plants. On November 5 the Environmental Integrity Project, headed by former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)enforcement official Eric Schaeffer, said it had learned from senior officials that the agency would drop pending Clean Air Act enforcement actions and not pursue new cases dealing with that statute's New Source Review provisions. Michael O. Leavitt was sworn in as the new EPA administrator.

This article focuses on various developments related to the construction industry in the United States. With U.S. House and Senate negotiators working to finalize a multi-year transportation bill before a July 19, 2005 deadline, some remain optimistic that a final pact can be reached on the $286.5-billion measure that funds highway and transit projects. The deadline is when funding for the eighth extension of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century runs out. North Carolina's attorney general and four environmental groups have sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to block its Clean Air Interstate Rule. The lawsuit was filed July 8, 2005 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The article reports that with utilities and environmentalists both claiming victory after a recent federal appeals court ruling on Clean Air Act provisions, it is easy to be confused about the consequences of the June 24 decision upholding U.S. President George W. Bush's administration changes to the New Source Review program. The fight is over when owners of older coal-fired powerplants performing maintenance must install state-of-the-art emissions control equipment. A handful of states now are bypassing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and are taking direct legal action against utilities they believe are violating the clean air rules.

The article reports that the U.S. House appropriators on restored some money the U.S. President George W. Bush administration sought to cut in fiscal 2006 from critical water infrastructure accounts. But many funding levels included in the spending bill for the Environmental Protection Agency, the Interior Dept. State revolving funds for clean water will receive $850 million, an increase of $120 million from the White House request, but down $241 million from the $1.091 billion enacted for 2005. The U.S. Senate was aiming at press time to finish a bill by May 13, 2005 authorizing $251 billion for transportation programs over five years. The bill would succeed the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century.

The article informs that environmental observers, including those in the construction industry, are hoping that President George W. Bush's pick for Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator, agency veteran Stephen L. Johnson, will be more than a figurehead. It is no secret that Bush's first EPA administrator, former N.J. Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, was frustrated in the post and often disagreed with the White House on policy. Johnson is the first EPA executive who has risen through the ranks to the top job. In his 24 years at the agency, Johnson has served as deputy director of the Office of Pesticide Programs and later as assistant administrator of the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances. He served as a deputy administrator for Whitman and Leavitt. Johnson has been acting administrator since Jan. 26, 2005.

This article focuses on the follow up of pollution control policy as proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). A new EPA determination that scores of counties have too much pollution from soot and dust could have major fallout for construction. Areas that do not comply by 2010 with recently adopted standards for the microscopic particles could have millions of dollars of federal transportation funds withheld. On December 17, 2004 EPA reported that 225 counties in 20 states and the District of Columbia do not meet rules for polluting" particulate matter" measuring 2.5 micrometers in diameter.

This article reports that the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies is drafting a bill that could raise as much as $5 billion a year by taxing bottled beverages to fund water infrastructure improvements. But the preliminary proposal will have a long, tough road ahead to garner enough industry and congressional support. For now, it calls for a 5 percent; tax on water and soft drinks. But the American Water Works Association will "adamantly oppose" any water tax contained in any bill. The Environmental Protection Agency will delay until next year its proposed Clean Air Interstate Rule, which aims to curb emissions of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide. Industry sources believe the administration will wait to unveil the interstate regulation until March, when EPA also is expected to issue final rules to regulate mercury emissions for the first time.

With a tight federal budget expected to continue and no immediate U.S. President George W. Bush's White House plans to seek extra dollars for hazardous waste cleanups, Superfund is ripe for change, says Thomas P. Dunne, who heads the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency office that oversees the cleanup program. Dunne has floated some ideas on how to leverage Superfund's dwindling pool of money. Partisan battles have sunk past Capitol Hill efforts to "reform" Superfund. Dunne's suggestions, contained in a December 2 speech at a Charlottesville, Virginia, conference, are not fully developed. He says EPA could stop listing new sites or not start cleanup at newly eligible sites where there is no responsible party until work in the pipeline is finished. Dunne issued a plea to put politics aside.

This article reports that plans for a$ 2-billion phase of a long-rang effort to stem severe wetlands losses on Louisiana's coast have come into clearer focus with the release November 8 of a Corps of Engineers study. Congressional authorization for the plan is tied up in a still-pending water resources bill. The article also reports that the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed the third and last installment of new rules to protect aquatic life at cooling water intake structures. The November 1 third-phase plan addresses design, construction and capacity standards for intakes at certain existing manufacturing plants and new offshore and coastal oil and gas facilities.

This article reports that bruised by Republican election victories in the White House, Senate and House, leaders of building trades unions and environmental groups realize they will face an even more difficult time on regulatory and legislative issues in 2005 and beyond. While unions and" greens" will continue to push for initiatives they lobbied for during President George W. Bush's first term, it is far more likely that organized labor and environmentalists will devote their time, energy and resources to" play defense," to ensure that policies they oppose don't become law. John Walke, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's clean air program, predicts the administration will try to make further cuts in enforcement budgets of EPA and the Justice Department Environmentalists will oppose opening Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil exploration as part of an energy bill. INSET: What They'll Have To Fight For.

A massive water resources bill has cleared the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, featuring at least $1.4 billion in federal and trust funds for a package of expanded locks and ecosystem restoration work on the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers. The bill, approved June 23, authorizes $730 million from the Treasury and the same sum from the Inland Waterways Trust Fund for the $2.3-billion "Upper Miss" plan, including $200 million for non-structural improvements and mitigation stemming from the new locks. It provides unspecified amounts toward an estimated $1.5 billion in upper Mississippi environmental restoration.

Looking to boost his environmental profile in an election year, U.S. President George W. Bush used Earth Day festivities to announce a new wetlands goal of moving beyond the earlier policy of "no net loss" to increase total wetland acreage over five years. Bush is looking to conservation incentives to create, improve and protect at least 3 million more wetland acres. But reaction was lukewarm from contractors, who generally need a permit under the Clean Water Act for projects near wetlands. The National Home Builders Association doesn't expect the policy shift to change anything for its sector of the industry.

Environmental organizations and industry groups want the U.S. Congress to reject U.S. President George W. Bush's proposed 7% cut in the Environmental Protection Agency's 2005 budget. Wesley Warren, deputy director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Advocacy Center, points to "Clean Water" state revolving funds, which Bush wants to trim by 37% to $850 million and water infrastructure grants, which would be sliced 78% to $94 million. In the past, U.S. Congress has turned back proposed reductions in those areas, but Warren says "it's not automatic" that lawmakers will undo the 2005 cuts.

GOP leaders of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee want to resuscitate a White House-backed bill to cut power plant emissions. The new bill requires trimming nationwide mercury emissions by 34 tons a year, up from the earlier version's 26-ton cut. Lawmakers say it is based on updated Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data and could mean changes in a coming EPA mercury emissions plan. The House passed legislation November 7 that could prevent Federal Prison Industries, a government-owned corporation that uses federal prisoners as workers, from what critics charge is monopolizing some A/E services to federal agencies.

The Supreme Court in Washington will wrestle with two important construction cases during the 2003 term, which began October 6, 2003. One case addresses construction permitting rules under the Clean Air Act and the other deals with a provision in the Americans With Disabilities Act. EPA has delegated authority to some states under the clean air law to make decisions about granting construction permits, including determining the best available control technology for reducing emissions for new or modified major pollutant-emitting facilities. EPA did not agree and issued a stop-construction order, arguing that the generator should not be built without new state-of-the-art technology. Another case addressing federalism issues is Tennessee v. Lane. When the case is argued in January, the justices will look at an ADA provision that requires public services, programs or activities to be accessible to persons with disabilities.

The article reports on developments related to environmental protection in the United States. There are not any new federal airport grants being awarded while a successor to AIR-21 is stuck in the U.S. Congress. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued a security product guide for drinking water and wastewater treatment utilities. The guide evaluates individual products that are applicable to distribution systems, wastewater collection systems, pumping stations, treatment processes, main plant sites and remote sites. An October 1 Environment and Public Works Committee vote on Utah governor Michael Leavitt was blocked when Representatives James Jeffords and panel democrats boycotted.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency's July 17 announcement that it will start 11 new Superfund projects, but not 12 others, drew praise and criticism. Senate environment committee chairman James Inhofe says the action shows that President George W. Bush administration is dedicated to cleaning up the nation's Superfund sites. However, Senator Barbara Boxer says that not cleaning other sites is unacceptable.

Environmental industry sources say that Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne is at the top of the short list to succeed Christine Todd Whitman as Environmental Protection Agency administrator after her June 27 resignation. Considered a consensus builder on many issues when he served one term in the Senate from 1993 to 1998, Kempthorne chaired the drinking water subcommittee.

U.S. Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee are concerned about two recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports on enforcement of the federal Clean Water Act. EPA's Inspector General reported in late May that the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System program, designed to protect rivers and other waterways, needed to update its permitting program. But the report found that the cost of revising the permits was escalating too fast, delaying the changes. A second EPA study found a significant drop in enforcement of that program.

The article reports on the settlement reached by the U.S. administration with Wisconsin Electric Power Co. (WEPCO) according to which WEPCO will spend $600 million to install pollution controls at four coal-fired powerplants in Wisconsin and one in Michigan. WEPCO will also improve its control of particulate matter and spend at least $20 million to finance an environmental mitigation project demonstrating a new technology to significantly reduce mercury emissions.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled its emission reduction plans for nonroad diesel engines, including engines used in construction equipment. The proposal announced on April 15, 2003 would reduce emissions of particulate matter and nitrogen oxides by more than 90 EPA expects emissions standard to start as early as 2008 and be fully phased in by 2014. Public hearings on the plan will be held in June 2003 in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Focuses on the plans of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concerning the operation of powerplants and industrial facilities in the U.S. Accounts on the changes in the New Source Review rules of EPA; Effects of powerplant modification on air pollution level; Definition of 'routine maintenance.'

Reports developments related to environmental protection in the United States as of September 2000. Acceleration of military site cleanups; Lawsuit filed by business groups against the Environmental Protection Agency over water rules; Opposition against proposed federal laws streamlining environmental reviews of highway projects.

Focuses on the imposition of water treatment purification standards for the protection of public health in the United States. Rules imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency; Release of funding for state revolving loan funds; Implication of the rule for turbidity performance criteria; Impact of the rules on community and non-community water systems.