In what must be a flub, U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton yesterday named a toxic dump in Fresno, Calif., as a national historic landmark. Officials weren't sure how the landfill was nominated for the prestigious designation. The 145-acre Fresno Municipal Sanitary Landfill is also listed as a Superfund site, with cleanup costs estimated at $38 million. City councilperson Brian Calhoun's response upon hearing about the designation: "Are you kidding?"

A new study released yesterday by an advisory panel to the U.S. EPA undercuts one of the Bush administration's main reasons for revoking a tougher standard for arsenic levels in drinking water. When EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman rejected the standard, she said the Clinton administration hadn't adequately considered costs when arriving at the standard. But the panel's report found that, to the contrary, the previous administration did a "credible job" of gauging the costs.

Two new U.S. government reports raise big concerns about a Bush administration plan to cut federal environmental enforcement staff by 8 percent and shift resources to the states. A report by the U.S. EPA's inspector general found that states are doing a poor job of monitoring and punishing water polluters. A report by the General Accounting Office, the congressional watchdog agency, said the administration couldn't show that the states would make up for the cuts in federal enforcement staff. Ed Kratzer, an author of the GAO report, said, "It cannot be demonstrated that [the shift] won't cause unwanted adverse effects."

As a last hurrah, Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening (D) says he will push for new restrictions on development along Maryland's coastal bays. He says he will introduce a bill to preserve the wetlands and protect water quality in the next legislative session --which will be his final one in office -- and he expects the fight over the restrictions to be one of his toughest yet. Driving the southern Maryland coast this weekend, Glendening pointed out a house under construction on what was once a wetland: "People look at that and say, isn't that progress? It's a million-dollar home. I …

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said yesterday he would join with U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) to block President Bush's nomination of Donald Schregardus to be the U.S. EPA's chief enforcement officer. Schumer said he would use parliamentary tactics to stall the nomination until the Bush administration indicated whether it would withdraw from Clinton-era lawsuits against power plants in the Midwest and the South that send pollution to the Northeast. As Ohio's top environmental enforcer, Schregardus opposed efforts by the EPA to regulate the Midwest brew of pollution that blows east. Environmental groups say Schregardus generally had an abysmal record …

U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman told the New York Times Magazine that U.S. President Bush in January hadn't heard of the White House Office on Environmental Quality, the executive branch office responsible for enforcing the National Environmental Policy Act and coordinating the environmental policies of federal agencies. Whitman said that when Bush offered her the EPA job, he told her that she alone would be setting the administration's environmental policies. Whitman said, ''I asked him what the role for the Council on Environmental Quality would be, and he said: 'I don't even know what that is. I want you …

If the Bush administration withdraws from Clinton-era pollution lawsuits against power plants in the Midwest and South, Northeast states that also sued the plants will have a hard time continuing with the cases. The states don't have the resources of the federal government, and they would have trouble building cases against plants more than 400 miles away. Enviros are skeptical that the administration will pursue any enforcement actions aggressively, now that President Bush has nominated Donald Schregardus to be the EPA's chief enforcement officer. As Ohio's top environmental enforcement officer, Schregardus clashed with then-New Jersey Gov. Christie Todd Whitman, arguing …

Factory hog farms, as well as the cattle and poultry industries, are pressuring the U.S. Congress to pass a bill that would use taxpayer dollars to help the farms pay for cleaning up their environmental messes. The U.S. EPA is considering costly regulations to reduce pollution from the livestock operations -- and the industries don't want to get stuck with the bill. The House Agriculture Committee has approved a measure that would lift the cap on the size of livestock operations eligible for federal environmental aid. Even the largest and most profitable operations could receive $200,000 of taxpayer dollars over …

Not wanting to provoke another attack from environmentalists, the Bush administration said yesterday that it would delay announcing its plan for overhauling regulation of aging power plants and instead include the plan as part of a more comprehensive package of clean-air policy options in September. President Bush had ordered the U.S. EPA to reassess the "new source review" program by this Friday. The program requires the installation of the latest pollution-control equipment when power plants and refineries are built or significantly upgraded. The U.S. Justice Department under former President Clinton sued dozens of older power plants for failing to improve …