E.P.A. Accuses California of ‘Significant’ Air and Water Problems

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Thursday, pressing the president’s complaints about homelessness in California, demanded the state improve the way it deals with human waste, arsenic and lead in water as it escalated the administration’s war with the country’s most populous state.

In a letter to Gov. Gavin C. Newsom of California, Andrew Wheeler, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, accused the state of “deficiencies that have led to significant public health concerns” and issued a veiled threat that federal funding to the state could be at risk.

“California needs to fulfill its obligation to protect its water bodies and, more importantly, public health, and it should take this letter as notice that EPA is going to insist that it meets its environmental obligations,” Mr. Wheeler said in a statement Thursday.

“If California does not step up to its delegated responsibilities, then EPA will be forced to take action,” Mr. Wheeler added.

His letter made explicit reference to the “growing homelessness crisis developing in major California cities” — an issue that has captivated the president.

California has sparred with Mr. Trump since the earliest days of the administration. But analysts said the newest skirmish is significant because it shows President Trump’s willingness to use obscure levers of policy to punish states that oppose him.

Mr. Newsom’s office hit back, saying the E.P.A.’s action was of a piece with the Ukraine scandal fueling impeachment talk and engulfing the White House.

“There’s a common theme in the news coming out of this White House this week. The president is abusing the powers of the presidency and weaponizing government to attack his political opponents. This is not about clean air, clean water or helping our state with homelessness. This is political retribution against California, plain and simple,” Nathan Click, a spokesman for Mr. Newsom, said in a statement.

The Trump administration also has taken aim at California in other ways, attacking the state for its handling of the homeless problem, and threatening to cut off critical federal wildfire aid.

The E.P.A. letter lays out a multitude of accusations and says the state’s lack of response to its homeless crisis “prompted E.P.A. to review other programs.” It cites numerous pollution discharges into public water systems. While the letter does not explicitly threaten to take funding away from California, it notes that California has received $1.16 billion in federal water treatment funds over the past five years.

Mr. Wheeler cited press reports that human feces from homeless people in Los Angeles and San Francisco is increasingly common on streets and sidewalks. “The E.P.A. is concerned about the potential water quality impacts from pathogens and other contaminants from untreated human waste entering nearby waters.”

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The letter goes on to cite numerous other problems, including exceeded arsenic and lead levels, and gave the state 30 days to deliver a “remedial plan.”

California has waged its end of the war just as fiercely. The state has 30 environmental lawsuits pending against the administration, most in an effort to stop the rollbacks of climate change regulations enacted under the Obama administration.

Judith Enck, a former E.P.A. regional administrator appointed by President Barack Obama, called the new environmental accusations against California “ridiculous” and said states like Texas and Louisiana have far more problems with levels of lead and arsenic in water that exceed federal standards. When asked how many violations other states have incurred, an E.P.A. spokeswoman sent the link to a federal safe drinking water reporting site.

“I’m not going to say that enforcement isn’t a problem, but there are other states that are far worse than California,” Ms. Enck said. “This an obvious attempt at political intimidation.”

She said the compilation of data about California’s compliance would have involved a large amount of work on the part of E.P.A. staff.

“They apparently have a lot of free time because they are no longer enforcing federal environmental laws,” she said.

Jeffrey Mount, a senior fellow at the Water Policy Center of the Public Policy Institute of California, said the E.P.A.’s accusations are not even accurate. When it comes to the issue of homelessness and human waste, Mr. Mount said major California cities collect and treat all runoff. The same goes for the sewage and storm water that E.P.A. complained is discharged into the San Francisco Bay and Pacific Ocean.

“The impression is that they are discharging raw sewage into the bay. That’s not true. It’s treated,” Mr. Mount said. He said California’s water quality has been making steady improvements over the past two decades because of state investments.

Mandy Gunasekara, a former policy adviser in the E.P.A. under the Trump administration, defended the letter, saying California had “failed its citizens in the most basic role of any state, keeping them healthy and safe.” She said if California would not fix its problems, Mr. Trump would “step in.”

California has frustrated the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back Obama-era national standards for automobile tailpipe emissions by adhering to an even more stringent standard. In July the state announced that four automakers had signed a deal with California to comply with its tighter standards if the national rollback succeeds.

Mr. Trump then announced he would revoke California’s authority to set its own rules for setting tailpipe emissions levels, and the state hit back with a lawsuit, joined by 23 other states that also want tougher standards.

Bruce Cain, a political scientist at Stanford University, called the letter political posturing by Mr. Trump to paint liberal states and cities as dangerous and poorly run ahead of his re-election campaign.

“He’s trying to position the Democratic Party as a failed party that cannot govern,” Mr. Cain said. “I think everyone in California will see this for what it is.”

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