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<br />001G68 <br /> <br />EP A's resistance to the direct regulation of irrigators is summarized by the following <br /> <br />quote from a 1977 statement: <br /> <br />The 1973 decision to exclude most irrigation flow from the NPDES permit-program was <br />based on two fundamental reasons. First, EPA was faced with issuing approximately 70,000 <br />NPDES permits to industrial and municipal facilities. Since there are approximately 300,000 to <br />500,000 irrigators in the country, the additional administrative burden of issuing intlividual permits <br />to irrigators seemed overwhelming. <br />Second, it was clear that the program for developing nationally-applicable effluent guidelines <br />was inappropriate to the geographical variations inherent in irrigation activities. These effluent <br />guidelines, translated into effluent limitations in individual permits, are the key to pollution control <br />for municipal and industrial point sources under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. . <br />Given these elements of administrative infeasibility and technical limitations, the 1973 <br />amendments excluded the vast majority of irrigators from the NPDES permit program. The' few <br />permits issued to large irrigators with 3000 or more contiguous acres of land under the 1973 <br />regulations contained only monitoring requirements. . Many of these permits are still tied 'up in <br />adjudicatory hearings contesting the provisions of the permits.35 <br /> <br />Shortly after the above was written, Congress eased EPA's pain by prohIbiting it from directly <br /> <br />'.. <br />or indirectly requiring any state to subject return flows to a permit program.36 <br /> <br />In the broader scheme of the CW A, however, irrigators and special water districts must <br /> <br />be accounted for. The goal of the CW A is "to restore and maintain the chemical, physical and <br /> <br />biological integrity of the Nation's waters. . . [and] that discharge of pollutants into the <br /> <br />navigable waters be eliminated."37 Although this is a general (and perhaps unattainable) goal, <br /> <br />it does offer a background to the general issue: assuming that irrigation return flows are <br /> <br />35 lei at 574 n.llS. <br />36 33 U.S.C.A ~ 1342(1)(1). <br />37 33 U.S.C.A ~ 1251(a). <br /> <br />33 <br />