May
16th
Agency Oversight
CDWC Issue DEP Report Card, May 15, 2008
On May 15, the Clean Drinking Water Coalition (CDWC) — The Catskill Center for Conservation and Development, NYPIRG and Riverkeeper — announced the release of their first annual DEP Report Card: “Making the Grade: New York City Department of Environmental Protection’s Drinking Water Protection Programs.” The DEP Report Card grades, analyzes, and provides recommendations for thirty-three DEP watershed programs which protect New York City’s drinking water.
http://www.riverkeeper.org/campaign.php/watershed/we_are_doing/1544-dep-report-card
Click on the link above to continue to read the article and report on the Riverkeeper Home Page, then return to our page to comment.
By Walt Matystik on May 18, 2008 | Reply
Riverkeeper, NYPIRG & CCCD do a nice job with their comprehensive report card. If one were to compute a college equivalent cumulative average, DEC scores a 3.26 - the equivalent of a B+/B (perhaps a bit of grade inflation has crept in and some of the C’s should really be C- or Ds!).
One “course” not included, however, was “Environmental Justice 101″. Here, the DEC’s current policy would have to earn no higher than a D since a major project such as the cost-overun prone, water rate hiking Croton WTP can still escape the environmental justice review process under current DEC policy. It’s hard to believe that the review process and permit applications for a now almost $3 billion project built adjacent to a low income, minority EJ community doesn’t trigger a required EJ review under DEC Commissioner Policy CP-29. On second thought, no grade inflation here -I’d put an F for EJ101 on DEC’s transcript !