EPA Enforcement Heightens Utility Fears Over Wastewater 'Blending' Ban

Some EPA Regions and states are said to be blocking issuance of permits that allow utilities to blend treated and partially treated wastewater during heavy precipitation events, heightening the concerns of utilities that the agency may adopt such a policy nationwide despite a long-stalled agency policy to allow blending in some cases. Senior EPA water and enforcement officials are not aware of the issue, though some industry officials are vowing to challenge the agency actions in court and lobby state...

Chesapeake Bill Backers Vow Some Fixes Amid Fears Over EPA Powers

Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) and other supporters of legislation to bolster cleanup in the Chesapeake Bay are vowing to make some changes to the bill to address industry concerns about an expansion of EPA and state permit authorities and restrict EPA's scientific flexibility to set nutrient pollution load levels, but they are still supporting strong citizen suit and other enforcement provisions that industry and other critics oppose. Their offer to amend some of the bill's controversial provisions ahead of any...

Activists' SIP Suits May Delay Permits Until Issuance Of Strict Utility Rules

Environmentalists are suing EPA to force it to use a Clean Air Act power to block coal-fired utility permits issued under state air quality plans that they say fail to comply with the air law, a strategy one activists says could delay the permits until the agency implements stricter air, waste and other rules that the permits would have to adopt. Sierra Club and Valley Watch are pursuing legal challenges to permits for power plants in a number of states...

Cardin, Alexander Move To Limit Scope Of Mountaintop Mining Waste Bill

Two key Senate environment committee lawmakers are quietly working to limit the reach of a mining bill they introduced so that it only applies to mountaintop mining waste and not other coal mining waste, but the draft revision is still drawing the ire of mining industry officials. The shift comes after both the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and EPA found S. 696, introduced by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), who chairs the environment panel's water subcommittee, and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN),...

Draft Baucus Amendments Show Finance Chairman's Climate Bill Priorities

Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), chairman of the powerful Finance Committee and a key player in the climate debate, drafted 19 amendments to cap-and-trade legislation outlining his priorities for the bill, including lowering mitigation targets, curtailing EPA authority to regulate greenhouse gases (GHGs) under the Clean Air Act and other changes. The amendments were never considered by the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, of which Baucus also is a member, because Republicans boycotted the panel's markup of the climate bill...

States Press EPA To Harmonize Federal-Regional GHG Reporting Rules

Officials in Western states and Canadian provinces designing a regional greenhouse gas (GHG) cap-and-trade program are urging EPA to clarify how it intends to ensure an upcoming federal GHG-reporting rule will not interfere with ongoing regional efforts. State officials say EPA is taking too long to make critical decisions on how to harmonize federal-state reporting rules, which may force industrial facilities to meet costly duplicative requirements. Specifically, state officials are pressing EPA to decide whether it will allow a voluntary,...

Activists Target 'Dry' Coal Ash Disposal In Bid For Hazardous Waste Rule

Environmentalists are suing a power company over alleged Clean Water Act violations from a "dry" coal ash disposal facility, saying the suit highlights the risks of coal waste and the need for EPA to regulate all types of disposal, including both dry and wet, as hazardous in its pending first-time rule for the waste. EPA will propose by the end of the year a Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) rule for coal ash disposal either as hazardous waste under...

Terror Guide Departs From Past Anthrax, Superfund Policies, Activists Say

Activists are urging "major revisions" to a draft guide EPA and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have developed for responding to bio-terrorism attacks and accidents at biological laboratories, arguing that the document misinterprets existing EPA Superfund guidelines and suggests vague cleanup standards that may not be health protective. Rather than use the draft guide's vague methods for cleaning up after a potentially harmful biological release, the government should instead adopt the decontamination standard the government used in response to...

Rulings Highlight Liability Uncertainty For Past Operations Under RCRA

Recent rulings on the question of whether past operators of commercial facilities can be held liable for environmental cleanups under the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) are highlighting the legal uncertainty that surrounds the issue -- increasing the prospects of liability for some companies while at the same time making it more difficult for regulators to impose liability in some instances, legal experts say. In a Sept. 30 ruling in the case Scarlett & Associates Inc. v. Briarcliff Center...

EPA Poised To Address Heat Input Limit Enforceability At Coal Plants

The Obama EPA is poised to issue two decisions answering activist challenges targeting the absence of heat input limits in power plant operating permits that will test the new administration's position on the key question of whether enforceable heat input rates can be required to halt coal-fired power plants from being built or expanded. Environmentalists have begun to challenge coal-fired plant permits for their absence of enforceable heat input rates, which is a measure of the amount of energy being...

Activists Fight Power Plant Permits To Bolster Bid For Strict Effluent Rules

Environmentalists are challenging a slew of renewed Clean Water Act (CWA) discharge permits for power plants as a stop-gap measure in advance of EPA revising its effluent limitation guidelines (ELG) for the sector, hoping the challenges will lead to revised, stricter permit limits that pressure the agency to issue a stringent ELG. Industry officials however insist that the agency should not consider outside pressure from environmentalists' challenges during its review of its ELG for wastewater streams from power plants. Industry...

Navy Retreats From Fight With EPA Region X Over Superfund Penalties

After challenging EPA Region X's authority to assess penalties under federal cleanup law for allegedly failing to adequately consider potential cleanup remedies at a Washington Superfund site, the Navy last month backed down, conceding it would pay the assessment and not push the disagreement up to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. The case appears to be a rare test of EPA's authority to assess stipulated penalties for documents that fail to meet requirements in Superfund law, although a spokeswoman for EPA...

States, Activists Urge EPA To Target Voluntary Efforts In FY11 Budget Cuts

State officials and environmentalists say EPA should target voluntary programs for potential major budget cuts in fiscal year 2011 to protect funding for core mandatory programs, after President Obama asked agencies to prepare for a FY11 budget that either freezes funding at FY10 levels or cuts funding by five percent. States say that no funding increase would be a disappointment as they face ongoing budget shortfalls and say they will continue to seek boosts to EPA's accounts that fund state...

EPA Plans Fiscal Sustainability Rules For Water Utilities In FY11 Budget

EPA's draft fiscal year 2011 budget request includes first-time requirements for drinking water and wastewater utilities to prove they meet several standards of sustainability before receiving state revolving fund (SRF) loans for infrastructure maintenance, repair and upgrades. The requirements would mark a shift for EPA, which until now has not taken an official position on whether utilities should be required to demonstrate they are effectively managing their water infrastructure assets before getting financial assistance. President Obama's FY10 budget request included...

Bush White House Regulatory Review Head Attacks EPA NAAQS Process

Susan Dudley, the former Bush White House regulatory review chief who was at the heart of a controversy over EPA's ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS), is criticizing the agency's process for setting NAAQS and what she says are Obama EPA reversals of Bush administration steps to increase public input in the NAAQS process. Dudley, who is now the director of the Regulatory Studies Center at George Washington University, told a Nov. 17 event hosted by the George C...

Law Expert Urges Climate Tort Plaintiffs To Avoid Supreme Court Review

Environmental law expert Prof. Richard Lazarus is urging state and other plaintiffs to avoid the Supreme Court in the wake of their landmark appellate victories allowing public nuisance suits to proceed against industrial emitters for their contributions to climate change. But the plaintiffs may face a tough haul as industry defendants have already launched bids to get the issue to the high court, although one industry lawyer says he sees little chance the issue will reach the court. In his...

Clean Water Group Advocates Major Changes To Federal Water Policy

A policy group including key former EPA officials and the wastewater industry is advocating a broad range of major changes to federal water policy to encourage regional water planning and green infrastructure, an immediate inventory of the nation's water resources, and other measures. The recently formed Clean Water America Alliance in a Nov. 23 report detailing a Sept. 14-15 meeting calls for immediate actions -- taking a detailed national water inventory and studying the water footprint of a number of...

Vermont Joins Novel Suit Over Climate's Role In Setting Pollution Limits

In a move that could shake up negotiations between EPA and environmentalists in a potentially precedent-setting permit dispute over climate change impacts, the state of Vermont is intervening, charging that the agency does not represent the state's interests and the case could strike down EPA guidance documents used to create discharge limits in water permits. EPA and the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) have been in negotiations since March, after CLF sued EPA over the agency's approval of a Vermont phosphorus...

EPA Seeks Comment On Report Into Climate's Impacts On Vulnerable Species

EPA is seeking public comment on a draft report on determining the climate change impacts on vulnerable species, which could be a first step in a move to expand climate policies into the protection of endangered species. The report, "A Framework for Categorizing the Relative Vulnerability of Threatened and Endangered Species to Climate Change," comes as some activists have argued that the Endangered Species Act should be used as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. According to a notice...

Court Upholds EPA Effort To Develop Numeric Nutrient Criteria For Florida

A federal district court in Florida has rejected an attempt by industry and several state agencies to derail a settlement devised by EPA and a group of environmentalists, clearing the way for the agency to issue its own numeric water quality criteria for nutrients in Florida, which activists say could set a national precedent. After a Nov. 16 hearing, District Court Judge Robert Hinkle rejected motions by a group of state and industry intervenors to dismiss the settlement in Florida...

Pages

Not a subscriber? Request 30 days free access to exclusive environmental policy reporting.