CLF racks up clean water victories.

• Position: Around the States - Conservation Law Foundation

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Stormwater pollution is now recognized as one of the major pollution threats to New England's rivers, lakes and streams, and a series of CLF victories promises to tackle this vexing problem, in the last months of 2008, CLF successfully implemented a legal strategy that pushed EPA-New England to crack down on stormwater pollution flowing off existing big box developments and parking lots into some of New England's most beleaguered waterways.

"We commend EPA's New England office for creating a first-in-the-nation model for filling this long-running gap in the Clean Water Act's pollution permitting and cleanup regulations" said Chris Kilian, CLF Vice President and director of Clean Water and Healthy Forests Program.

Long Creek in Maine and the Charles River in Massachusetts are two watersheds that EPA targeted with stricter runoff regulations. In both cases EPA issued rules under the Clean Water Act asking existing developments, like big box stores and malls, to develop cleanup measures for controlling the stormwater pollution that flows off their roofs, parking lots and other paved surfaces. Runoff...