The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was sued by Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Environmental Defense Center (EDC); both are environmental groups, saying that the EPA failed to comply with a court order that required them to strengthen the regulations on preventing pollution from storm water runoff.
In their statement, NRDC and EDC said that they filed the case in San Francisco's 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last Thursday.
EPA, according to the groups, did not obey the 9th circuit ruling on 2003 in the case EDC v. EPA. The Agency was required to redo some parts of its 1999 regulations on storm water that deals with urban runoff for the reason that they did not conform to the Clean Water Act.
The Agency was also directed by the 9th circuit order to consider runoff regulation on 'unpaved forest roads.'
EDC and NRDC said that they have prayed before the court to set a deadline for EPA to make actions regarding these matters.
In reply to the court case, EPA said that the Agency was working on how to strengthen existing program on storm water pollution by demanding additional environmental protections during renewal of permits on storm sewer and cooperating with municipalities and states to lessen water pollution.
EPA, in its statement, said "The agency's goal is to build a broad nationwide constituency for better storm water pollution control by educating communities and giving them an opportunity to develop strong programs before creating additional federal regulatory requirements."
Rain water that runs on hard surfaces and off roads to sewer system might cause contamination of water supplies, cause closings of beach, and harm marine life.
EPA had pledged to the environmental group that the Agency would improve its rules in urban storm water in 1999, but it withdrew on those plans.
Larry Levine, Senior Attorney of NRDC, said in a statement "We hope this suit spurs EPA to get back into the business of modernizing its whole storm water program, which badly needs updating and could greatly benefit from new green technologies."