The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new administrator, Lisa Jackson, says the public can expect greater enforcement of the Clean Water Act under her watch -- and that is likely to include exercising the agency's rarely used power to veto wetland permits issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

In a question-and-answer session with the St. Petersburg Times this week, Jackson talked about wetlands destruction, mountaintop mining, and restoring the original meaning of the phrase "waters of the United States" in the Clean Water Act, among other things.

Q: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issues more permits for wetlands
destruction in Florida than in any other state. The EPA has the power
under the Clean Water Act to veto those permits, but hasn’t blocked a
single permit in Florida since 1988. It’s only used its veto power
nationwide 12 times since 1972. Now that you’re in charge, will the
EPA become more aggressive about using its veto power to protect
wetlands -- not just in Florida but in places like West Virginia,
where the Corps is allowing coal companies to slice the top off
mountains?

A: That whole process had become a bit toothless. I asked my staff
what they did, and they said, “We made our concerns known to the Corps
and we didn’t hear back.” (The Corps and the public should know that, instead
of just expressing bjections, the EPA will once again use its veto power.)
"We’re likely going to get to the point where we don’t agree and we have to veto
....The Corps of Engineers understands when the EPA has concerns, it’s
going to raise them. We’re going to do our jobs.'

Q: What do you think about the Clean Water Restoration Act, the
legislation intended to overturn recent Supreme Court decisions that
have made it harder for the Corps and EPA to figure out what wetlands
are protected by the Clean Water Act?

A: We estimate that EPA staffers spend 50 percent of their time trying
to determine if we have jurisdiction. Can we actually protect this
water?...It’s being wrongly portrayed as an attempt to regulate tiny
potholes. I certainly understand people’s concerns that we not
overreach, but we’re just trying to restore the original meaning of
the act.

Incidentally, last month Jackson sent out a memo to her staff, telling them she wants "to improve and enhance information that is available through the EPA web site on compliance with the Clean Water Act and the level of enforcement activity in each state."

Jackson also told her staff that "we need to raise the bar for clean water enforcement performance. We must make sure that strong and effective action is taken when serious violations of law threaten water quality, and we must boost EPA’s enforcement presence against serious violators."

So starting this week the agency is taking comments from the public on how to improve its enforcement of the Clean Water Act. You have until Aug. 28 to make suggestions for improving the performance of the agency that Congress designated as the wetlands' watchdog, to make sure the Corps followed the law and its own regulations -- although, as we found in "Paving Paradise", the agency has in recent years become more of a lapdog than a watchdog.