{"id":12516,"date":"2013-01-16T14:40:05","date_gmt":"2013-01-16T20:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=12516"},"modified":"2013-02-08T12:46:25","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T18:46:25","slug":"gov-fallin-supports-1-5-million-in-new-spending-to-avoid-epa-water-takeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2013\/01\/16\/gov-fallin-supports-1-5-million-in-new-spending-to-avoid-epa-water-takeover\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Fallin Supports $1.5 Million in New Spending to Avoid EPA Water Takeover"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Members of a DEQ advisory council vote on fee increases at a Jan. 8 meeting in Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n<\/div>

The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality says the state\u00a0legislature has a choice: Set aside $1.5 million to comply with new federal clean water regulations, or turn over control of the state\u2019s drinking water to Washington, D.C.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

StateImpact reported last week<\/a> that DEQ has been asking for the money since not long after three new Environmental Protection Agency rules<\/a> were put in place in 2006.<\/p>

So far, the agency\u00a0hasn\u2019t had any luck.<\/p>

This year could be different. A spokesman for the governor says\u00a0she now supports new DEQ funds.<\/p>

<\/p>

\u201cThe governor plans to include $1.5 million in her executive budget \u2014 which will be released at the State of the State address next month \u2014 to address this issue,\u201d press secretary\u00a0Aaron Cooper says in an email to StateImpact.<\/p>

DEQ Water Quality Division Director Shellie Chard-McClary says the 2013 legislative session is Oklahoma\u2019s last chance to avoid an EPA takeover of its drinking water standards, and the governor\u2019s support might be the boost the agency needs.<\/p>

\u201cThis is the first year that we can recall that the governor has specifically including the public water supply funding in her budget,\u201d she says.<\/p>

Of course, inclusion of the money in the governor\u2019s budget is no guarantee the lawmakers\u00a0will approve.\u00a0DEQ needs a total of $2 million to fully comply with the EPA regulations. It plans to raise the $500,000 difference through fee increases on public water systems throughout the state.<\/p>

Those fees will also require legislative approval.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality says the state\u00a0legislature has a choice: Set aside $1.5 million to comply with new federal clean water regulations, or turn over control of the state\u2019s drinking water to Washington, D.C.\u00a0StateImpact reported last week that DEQ has been asking for the money since not long after three new Environmental Protection […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":12523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[491],"tags":[495,427],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12516"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12516"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12538,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12516\/revisions\/12538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}