States Raise Concerns To EPA Over Likely CWA Permits For Forest Roads

State regulators are raising concerns to EPA about its response to a recent appellate court decision holding that Clean Water Act (CWA) permits are needed for logging roads to regulate stormwater runoff, asking the agency to clarify whether the new permitting requirements will be applied nationally or only in the area covered by the ruling, among other issues. The Association of State & Interstate Water Pollution Control Administrators (ASIWPCA) was scheduled to be briefed by EPA officials on a Jan...

Industry Argues EPA Underestimated Costs For Pesticide Permit Reporting

The pesticide industry is charging that EPA has underestimated the costs associated with reporting requirements in the agency's forthcoming Clean Water Act pesticide application general permit, and say the low estimates could skew any cost-benefit analysis of the permit when the White House is expected to review it later this month. In recent comments on a draft Information Collection Request (ICR) associated with the upcoming permit, several industry organizations say EPA's estimated costs of collecting and issuing data associated with...

Once Exempted, EPA Casting Wider Net To Limit Nonpoint Discharges

With diminished prospects for congressional action to address shortcomings in the Clean Water Act (CWA), EPA is moving ahead with efforts to reduce pollution from "nonpoint" sources through expanded CWA permit requirements and tighter Clean Air Act controls. EPA generally lacks CWA authority to regulate nonpoint source pollution, such as stormwater runoff from neighborhoods and farmland or air deposition from power plants. But several pending measures regulating stormwater, pesticide spraying, power plants and the agriculture sector aim to capture previously...

Hurdles Remain For Carbon Sequestration After EPA Drinking Water Rule

Even after EPA issued its long-awaited rule regulating carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects under the Safe Drinking Water Act, hurdles remain for commercial deployment of the key technology for controlling greenhouse gases, including significant difficulty for facilities trying to obtain the necessary funding to deploy CCS without a comprehensive climate bill, sources say. Other regulatory and legal obstacles also loom for CCS projects, although observers disagree about their importance. For example, some in industry say EPA left key liability...

New EPA Reporting Mandates Spur Industry Fear Of Increased Regulation

Industry is bracing for potential new EPA regulation crafted using data collected through first-time reporting rules for sectors including hydraulic fracturing and high-density animal feeding operations, while noting that EPA plans to expand other industry reporting mandates could spur greater regulation and burden on key sectors. EPA is beginning to collect new data from a number of diverse industry sectors, which could lead to greater regulation of the practices, sources say. EPA has also moved forward in recent months with...

Appellate Court Rejects Activist Bid To Classify Mine Pits As Point Sources

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has rejected an argument by environmentalists that water collected in waste rock pits should be regulated as a point source under the Clean Water Act (CWA), marking the first time that an appellate court has considered that line of argument directly, according to a source familiar with the case. In a Dec. 23 split decision in Greater Yellowstone Coalition, et al., v. Lewis et al. , the 9th Circuit ruled that...

Activist Suit Could Test EPA Process For Judging State Water Quality Limits

A planned environmentalist lawsuit over EPA's alleged failure to properly review Oregon's landmark proposed revisions to narrative water quality criteria for toxics, citing violations of a number of federal statutes, could force the agency to speed up its reviews of state water quality criteria nationally, activist sources say. While environmentalists are generally supportive of EPA's mandate last year that Oregon set stringent criteria to protect Native American populations that consume large amounts of fish, Northwest Environmental Advocates (NEA) charges EPA...

Appellate Court Sets Stringent Standards For Citizen Suit Notices Of Intent

A federal appellate court has ruled that citizens' notices of intent (NOI) to sue under the Clean Water Act (CWA) must identify each pollutant being discharged in violation of the law in order to be granted relief, setting a stringent standard for plaintiffs that sources say will needlessly delay litigation to the extent that it could make suits untenable. In a Jan. 5 ruling in Friends of the Earth et al., v. Gaston Copper Recycling Corp. , the U.S. Court...

EPA Eyes New Method For Estimating Health Benefits Of Regulations

EPA is proposing a new method for measuring the public health benefits of its regulations, including reduced mortality levels, a major step that could help the agency defend its regulatory decisions and address long-standing criticisms about its existing method by dropping a measurement that places a statistical value on a human life. EPA late last month released a draft paper, "Valuing Mortality Risk Reductions for Environmental Policy," prior to a Jan. 20-21 meeting of EPA Science Advisory Board's (SAB) augmented...

New EPA Risk Estimate Begins To Drive Stricter Standards For Fluoride

EPA is proposing to strengthen its estimates of the health risks posed by the mineral fluoride, which has long been added to public drinking water systems for its dental hygiene benefits, a move that is expected to drive more stringent regulatory standards for the substance in some drinking water systems and has already prompted the agency to propose withdrawing tolerances for one fluoride pesticide. The agency Jan. 7 unveiled a new risk analysis that recommends setting the reference dose (RfD),...

Northeast Regulators Fighting Planned EPA Nutrient Criteria Requirements

Northeast states are elevating a dispute between states and EPA Region I officials over how the region's states will implement numeric nutrient criteria, arguing in a recent letter to Administrator Lisa Jackson that the region is requiring a method that would lead to violations of water quality standards even when there is no impairment of the waterbody. The New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC) in a Jan. 3 letter to Jackson says that "all of our states have...

Fearing Judge, Industry Opposes EPA's Favored Venue For Nutrient Suits

Industry, state and other groups suing EPA over its landmark numeric nutrient criteria for Florida waters are resisting agency efforts to consolidate multiple suits on the rule in a federal district court in Tallahassee, FL, because a federal judge in the court, who could hear the case, may be less sympathetic to their complaint, sources say. Florida's Department of Agriculture and industry groups have filed five separate lawsuits in a federal district court located in Pensacola, with the state and...

Groups Ready Defense Of State Environmental Laws As EPA Rollbacks Loom

Some state lawmakers and environmentalists are preparing to defend and promote state environmental laws that are stricter than federal requirements on curbing greenhouse gases (GHGs), exposures to toxics, and other issues, fearing an attack on state laws echoing Republican attempts in the 112th Congress to rollback EPA regulations. State-level attempts to undo or pare back environmental regulations could occur in states where the governor's office or state legislature switched from Democratic to Republican following the November elections, sources say. In...

EPA Tells States Wetlands Permitting Delegation Won't Trigger ESA Rules

An EPA decision to delegate Clean Water Act (CWA) wetlands permitting authority to a state is a mandatory action, and therefore would not trigger requirements under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) requiring consultation with other federal agencies, EPA water chief Peter Silva told states late last month, potentially removing a barrier that has prevented some states from seeking wetlands permitting authority. The Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) and the Association of State Wetland Managers (ASWM) wrote to EPA Dec...

EPA Likely To Delay Phase II Of State Chesapeake Bay Implementation Plans

EPA is likely to ask environmentalists early next month to push back legal deadlines for so-called phase II watershed implementation plans (WIPs) dictating how states will meet stringent new pollution limits in the Bay region, according to Jim Edward, acting director of the Chesapeake Bay Program. EPA approved the states' phase I WIPs Dec. 29, the same day the agency finalized its Bay-wide pollution limits for nutrients and sediments. The Bay-wide total maximum daily load (TMDL) -- a measure of...

Chesapeake Bay Lawsuit Marks New Test For EPA's TMDL Power

The American Farm Bureau Federation's (AFBF) legal challenge of EPA's novel, multistate pollution load limit for the Chesapeake Bay watershed could provide a new test of the agency's authority to set pollution limits among different sources and to dictate state actions in cleaning up waterbodies. In its Jan. 10 lawsuit, AFBF, et al. v. EPA , the farm industry group charges the recently finalized Bay total maximum daily load (TMDL) for nutrients and sediment is "fatally flawed" because the allocation...

Alabama Steps Up Mine Monitoring After EPA Threatens Permit Objections

Alabama environmental officials are stepping up monitoring of pollutant discharges from coal mines in response to negotiations between the state and federal officials, after EPA threatened to object to Clean Water Act permits for coal mines in the state that the agency said could have violated water quality standards. EPA has apparently backed off what state and industry sources say were earlier demands that Alabama fully apply the agency's landmark guidance on mining permits, which outlines strict requirements for approving...

Lawsuit Could Be Test For Enforcing EPA Permit Guide At Existing Mines

Parties have agreed to a briefing schedule in a first-of-its-kind citizen lawsuit over alleged Clean Water Act (CWA) violations by a mountaintop mining site in West Virginia, setting the stage for legal arguments in the suit that could test whether EPA's strict water quality guidance for mining permits can be applied to existing permits. Environmentalists filed the suit, Sierra Club, et al. v. Fola Coal Company LLC , in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia...

Critics Lob Early Challenge At First EPA Permit For In-Situ Uranium Mine

Activists have asked EPA's Environmental Appeals Board to review a Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) permit the agency issued for a test well at a planned uranium mine in Colorado, the first battle in what is likely to be a long fight over a mine that could be the first in-situ uranium mine directly overseen by EPA. The environmental group Coloradoans Against Resource Destruction (CARD) filed a Jan. 3 petition asking the board to review a Dec. 3 permit EPA...

EPA Finalizes Landmark Veto Of Controversial Mountaintop Mine Permit

EPA has decided to finalize its landmark veto of the controversial Spruce No. 1 mine water permit, provoking outcry from industry that the decision will jeopardize faith in Clean Water Act permitting and increase regulatory uncertainty, and likely sparking continued court fights over whether EPA has the authority to veto already-issued permits. "The proposed Spruce No. 1 Mine would use destructive and unsustainable mining practices that jeopardize the health of Appalachian communities and clean water on which they depend," EPA...

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