USDA-Funded Study Adds To Calls For EPA To Revise Water Trading Policy

A new Department of Agriculture (USDA) study is urging EPA to update its guidance on water quality trading in order to facilitate new trading agreements, joining industry calls in what sources say is an emerging consensus on the need for the guide's revision, though stakeholders' views on how it should be revised remain divided. Over time as more people have been thinking about trading and have begun to experience the application of trading, a wide assortment of groups has recognized...

Water Policy Report - 08/13/2012

Mon, 2012-08-13 00:00

Appeals Court Urged To Rehear Ruling Broadly Upholding EPA GHG Rules

Opponents of EPA's greenhouse gas (GHG) permitting, vehicle and other climate rules are urging a federal appeals court to rehear its ruling broadly upholding the regulations, saying the court erred by departing from past legal precedent and that it should take up the request for rehearing as the issue is one of “exceptional importance.” The conservative Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) and the Coalition for Responsible Regulation -- a group of several major trade organizations such as the American Chemistry Council...

EPA Asks Appellate Court To Dismiss Industry Challenge To Climate NSPS

EPA is asking a federal appeals court to dismiss an unusual industry challenge to its proposed greenhouse gas (GHG) new source performance standards (NSPS) for power plants, saying the Clean Air Act “very clearly limits” the court's authority to review rules before they are final and that the NSPS rulemaking process is ongoing. In an Aug. 9 motion to dismiss the suit, Las Brisas Energy Center, et al. v. EPA , the agency counters that the NSPS proposal does not...

Advisors Warn EPA To Avoid Using Bristol Bay Study For Decisionmaking

A panel of peer reviewers is cautioning EPA to treat its draft assessment of the potential effects of large-scale mining on fisheries in Alaska's Bristol Bay as a preliminary and screening level risk assessment, and to avoid using it as the basis for any significant regulatory decisions because of inadequate data and its failure to consider measures that could mitigate environmental harm. “We've all heard there are issues or concerns with how the mine might look,” where it is sited...

House GOP Report May Bolster Possible Suits Against EPA Auto GHG Rules

A new report from House Republicans could lay the groundwork for a possible suit targeting the administration's vehicle greenhouse gas (GHG) rules, charging that officials violated congressional intent when they elevated EPA's and California's role in the rulemaking process, as well as the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and other laws. The Aug. 10 report , which culminates months of investigation by the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee under Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA), comes just a few days ahead of...

EPA Revises CWA Orders To Comply With High Court's Sackett Ruling

EPA is taking of steps to implement the high court's Sackett ruling that subjects Clean Water Act (CWA) orders to pre-enforcement judicial review, including instructing staff to add language to such orders specifying that recipients can challenge the allegations in court before the agency seeks to enforce them or impose penalties. The agency is also urging staff to weigh use of notices of violation (NOVs) and warning letters in the early stages of enforcement proceedings, both of which may escape...

Ruling Opens Door To EPA Appeal Of Vacated Mine Permit Review Plan

The recent federal court ruling vacating EPA's mountaintop mining policies paves the way for the agency to proceed with its long-sought appeal of the court's decision to vacate the "enhanced" permit review process between the agency and Army Corps of Engineers, a process that agency officials say has not delayed permitting for mining activities. In its ruling in National Mining Association v. Lisa Jackson -- a ruling that has gained attention for vacating EPA's water quality guidance for mountaintop mining...

Court Scraps EPA Mining Guide But West Virginia Ruling Boosts Activists

A federal district court, in a closely watched ruling, has vacated EPA's controversial guidance setting strict water quality permitting conditions for mountaintop mining in Appalachia, but environmentalists hope that fallout from the ruling may be limited by a separate West Virginia environmental board finding that a state discharge permit must include "enforceable" limits for conductivity and other pollution measures -- a core component of EPA's guidance. West Virginia's top environmental official, however, is downplaying the potential impact of the state...

Advisors Warn EPA To Avoid Using Bristol Bay Study For Decisionmaking

A panel of peer reviewers is cautioning EPA to treat its draft assessment of the potential effects of large-scale mining on fisheries in Alaska's Bristol Bay as a preliminary and screening level risk assessment, and to avoid using it as the basis for any significant regulatory decisions because of inadequate data and its failure to consider measures that could mitigate environmental harm. "We've all heard there are issues or concerns with how the mine might look," where it is sited...

Idaho Seeks EPA Help In Studying Fish Consumption For Water Standards

Idaho has asked for EPA's help in crafting new fish consumption-based water quality standards for toxics after the agency formally rejected the state's proposed criteria, which sources say may have been the agency's first move toward duplicating a stringent standard adopted in Oregon that has been touted as a national model for other states. The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) "looks forward to working cooperatively with EPA regarding a fish consumption survey. DEQ also believes this is a topic...

Activists Vow Suit After Maine Rejects EPA's Water Act Review Of Fish Law

Environmentalists are promising to sue Maine officials after the state rejected EPA's landmark disapproval of a fish control statute that the agency deemed a violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA) -- one of a number of measures signaling EPA's willingness to broaden its review of local resource measures it considers to be water quality standards. If Maine refuses to comply with the agency's disapproval, a source with the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) -- which sued EPA to force the...

EPA Eyes New Fish 'Ingestion' Measure For Selenium Water Quality Criteria

EPA's upcoming water quality criteria for selenium is said to be based on a new approach that relies on the level of contaminants likely to be ingested by fish -- a more-refined approach than the tissue-based levels EPA has long used but which will still require a complex "translator" that could pose difficulties for regulators seeking to set regulatory limits. Jim Pletl, vice chair of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies' (NACWA) water quality committee, told the group's summer...

White House To Meet With EPA Over Looming Sequestration Budget Cuts

The White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) is planning meetings with EPA and other agencies to discuss looming budget cuts the agencies face under sequestration funding reductions set to take effect in January, asking agencies to provide details on programs they believe could be exempt from the automatic funding cuts. The planned discussions will take place over the coming months, according to a July 31 memo from OMB Acting Director Jeffrey Zients to the heads of executive departments...

Court Rejects Activists' Push To Temporarily Halt Keystone Pipeline Permits

A federal court has rejected environmentalists push for a temporary stay on construction of the southern leg of the Keystone XL oil pipeline -- slated to begin Aug. 6 -- while also signaling it is likely to reject a host of underlying legal challenges to the Clean Water Act (CWA) general permit used to authorize pipeline and power line projects. In an Aug. 5 order, Judge David Russell of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma denied...

Texas Argues EPA Lacks Data For Coastal Oil Drilling Discharge Limits

Texas is arguing that EPA lacks data to justify its final general Clean Water Act (CWA) permit for oil drilling in the state's coastal waters that includes a ban on produced wastewater discharges from marginal wells into waterbodies impaired for low dissolved oxygen, saying EPA failed to show produced water contributes to impairments. The permit restriction is likely to apply to a significant number of Texas waters, given the massive hypoxic "dead" zones in the Gulf of Mexico. The provisions...

Blumenauer Introduces Scaled-Back Water Infrastructure Trust Fund Bill

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) has introduced a bill that would establish a trust fund for wastewater infrastructure projects funded through new taxes on beverages, pharmaceuticals and water disposal products, a change from a previous version of the legislation that would have also funded drinking water infrastructure. Blumenauer introduced H.R. 6249 Aug. 1 without cosponsors. The bill largely mirrors a similar bill he introduced in the 111th Congress aside from the elimination of drinking water projects. The bill is available on...

Lawmakers Urge 'Aggressive' EPA Action To Fight Invasive Asian Carp

A group of lawmakers from Great Lakes states are pushing EPA to apply Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) funds to prevent the spread of Asian carp into the lakes after a Canadian study confirmed the presence of environmental DNA from the fish in Lake Erie and argued that it would take fewer than 20 carp to populate the lakes. In a July 24 letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Thomas Bostick, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers, a...

House Approves Bill To Exempt Farms From CWA Spill Prevention Plans

The House of Representatives has approved by voice vote a bill that directs EPA to amend its Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) rule to exempt many farms from having to develop a spill prevention plan, one of a raft of bills limiting EPA rules that were moved ahead of Congress' August recess. Lawmakers from both parties voted Aug. 1 to approve H.R. 3158, a bill that directs EPA to revise its SPCC rules to raise the thresholds for determining...

USDA-Funded Study Adds To Calls For EPA To Revise Water Trading Policy

A new study funded by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) is urging EPA to update its guidance on water quality trading in order to facilitate new trading agreements, joining industry calls in what sources say is an emerging consensus on the need for the guide's revision, though stakeholders' views on how it should be revised remain divided. Over time as more people have been thinking about trading and have begun to experience the application of trading, a wide assortment of...

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