Nancy Stoner to Leave EPA’s Office of Water
Nancy Stoner, EPA’s Acting Assistant Administrator for Water has announced that she’ll be leaving the Agency on August 8th. She will join the San Francisco-based non-profit organization, the Pisces Foundation, which (according to their web site) “supports organizations working to advance environmental education; improve the stewardship of water resources; and reduce global climate change.”
Mr. Stoner has been the Acting Assistant Administrator for Water since February 2011 because the Senate has not yet confirmed the President’s selection for Assistant Administrator, Ken Kopocis. Today (August 1st) marks the statutory limit for the length of time an unconfirmed Assistant Administrator can serve. The confirmation process has been held up, in large part, due to some members’ objection to the Administration’s efforts to clarify the jurisdiction of “waters of the U.S.” (i.e., those waters that are afforded Clean Water Act protections). We presume that the career Deputy Assistant Administrator for Water, Mike Shapiro, will act as Assistant Administrator for Water on an interim basis, but we’ll pass along further information as we learn it.
