ISSUE: SFR Top Stoires

House Democrats’ FY21 Bill Votes Signal Post-Election Priorities For EPA

House Democrats have approved policy riders to EPA’s fiscal year 2021 funding bill limiting the implementation of Trump administration environmental policies while creating new rules for emerging contaminants and boosting water infrastructure funds, signaling Democrats’ early priorities for EPA if Joe Biden wins the 2020 presidential election. Lawmakers in a series of July 23 votes approved the riders as amendments to H.R. 7608, an FY21 appropriations measure that would fund EPA and several other agencies, with a final vote on...

EPA Faces Legal Threats, Technical Critiques On Coal Ash Permit Rule

Power and coal industry groups are largely backing EPA’s proposal to craft a nationwide permit program for coal ash disposal while state and tribal governments are floating targeted revisions, and environmentalists are teeing up litigation if the agency finalizes the plan by arguing that the draft approach is unlawful. In comments filed ahead of a July 19 deadline, stakeholders sparred over the proposed Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) rule’s lifetime permit terms for facilities that store waste ash --...

Industries, Environmentalists Seek Updates To EPA’s Recycled-Content List

Various industries and environmentalists are weighing in on whether EPA should revise its guidelines that advise federal agencies on procuring recycled-content products, with the coal ash industry pushing to add various coal ash products to a list of such products while others want to boost recycled-content thresholds for existing products on the list. At issue is whether EPA should revise its list of designated items under the Comprehensive Procurement Guideline (CPG) and associated recommendations under a series of Recovered Materials...

9th Circuit Appears Poised To Let EPA Delay Federal Landfill Methane Rule

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit appears likely to block a lower court’s order setting a deadline for EPA to complete its federal plan to reduce methane emissions from municipal landfills, in a move that would be a win for the agency after it significantly delayed a series of deadlines in the Obama-era standards. However, the panel during July 17 oral arguments also signaled it would stay the lower court’s order rather than...

In FY21 Report, House Democrats Renew Concerns With EPA’s Agenda

Democratic appropriators in the House are reiterating and amplifying multiple concerns with EPA’s deregulatory efforts and resistance to Hill oversight, pressing the agency for action or information on numerous topics, including water contamination, toxic chemical risk assessment and agency enforcement. The critiques are included in a nonbinding report accompanying the chamber’s fiscal year 2021 appropriations bill for EPA, which would also block the agency from finalizing or implementing several Trump-era air, climate and water rollbacks. While it is far from...

Scrap Industry Floats Policy Options, Backs Manufacturer Recycling Mandates

The scrap recycling industry is recommending a variety of policy options for the Senate environment committee to consider as it weighs potentially new federal action to bolster the struggling recycling market, including voicing support for manufacturer-side recycling mandates that manufacturers have not embraced. The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) announced June 26 that it has submitted comments to the Senate Environment & Public Works (EPW) Committee, proposing a “menu of policy solutions to strengthen U.S. recycling,” in response to...

Unified Agenda Signals Delays For Major EPA Waste, Water Office Policies

Several major EPA water and waste office rulemakings face fresh delays according to the agency’s updated Spring Unified Agenda of pending regulations, punting some controversial policies until next year and making it possible that former Vice President Joe Biden’s EPA could reverse the rules if he wins the 2020 presidential election. Timelines for several Office of Water (OW) rules in the agenda updated June 30 have slipped, some significantly, from the fall 2019 agenda, including one rule that will now...

Responding To Industry Concerns, EPA Revamps ‘Ignitability’ Waste Rule

EPA is paring back some of the revisions it planned to include in an updated waste rule aimed at addressing “ignitability” criteria for hazardous waste, following concerns raised by industry groups that the draft rule could have prompted recategorizing generators’ materials and cost the chemical and retail industries tens of millions of dollars. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler June 8 signed an updated Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) final rule, titled “Modernizing Ignitable Liquids Determination,” finalizing an update to how...

Senators Back New Federal Action To Aid Recycling But Specifics Hazy

Senators from both parties appear open to new federal action that would bolster recycling programs to combat a growing plastic-waste crisis, but what that action would look like remains unclear as neither side is embracing a Democratic bill to enforce “extended producer responsibility” (EPR) mandates for manufacturers. During a June 17 hearing of the full Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), Republicans and Democrats alike agreed with witnesses who said the U.S. recycling system cannot keep up with demand...

Environment Panel Senators Press Wheeler On High-Profile Water Issues

Members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) are pressing EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler to explain how the agency is addressing a number of high-profile Clean Water Act (CWA) and Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) issues, including groundwater, state water quality reviews, perchlorate and perfluorinated chemicals. The questions are contained in a document, obtained by Inside EPA , and sent to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler following his May 20 testimony at an EPW oversight hearing. The senators...

Judges Eye Reversing Broad Interpretation Of CERCLA Contribution Rights

Federal appeals court judges appeared at recent oral argument to be leaning toward backing the United States’ attempt to overturn a lower court’s ruling that the federal government fears will undermine EPA’s ability to reach settlements with potentially responsible parties (PRPs) at Superfund sites and ensure prompt cleanups. During June 1 oral argument in the consolidated case New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), et al. v. American Thermoplastics Corp., et al ., a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court...

EPA Eyes Setting Uniform Blood-Lead Target For Waste Cleanup Sites

EPA’s waste office is considering adopting a uniform blood-lead level goal for screening contaminated waste sites to determine if additional risk characterization is needed, a move that would ensure regional consistency but would result in stricter cleanup goals and potentially reduce lead-exposure risks in some regions with large lead-contaminated sites. But because such a revision could prompt more extensive cleanups of waste sites, especially those at orphan sites where EPA’s Superfund program is covering cleanup costs, agency officials appear to...

Amid Pandemic, EPA Eases Waste Manifest Signature Requirements

EPA has relaxed hazardous waste manifest signature requirements on paper forms to aid waste handlers in maintaining social distancing measures during the COVID-19 public health emergency, a move that could aid EPA efforts to boost the number of generators and transporters moving to the electronic manifest (e-Manifest) system. In a May 18 memo signed by EPA waste office chief Peter Wright and enforcement head Susan Bodine, the agency says it is offering hazardous waste generators “flexibility with respect to signatures...

California Eyes Plan To Adopt Stricter Vapor Intrusion Policies Than EPA

California regulators are advancing a controversial draft guidance for screening and evaluating vapor intrusion as part of property assessment and cleanup, a measure that seeks to impose stricter requirements than EPA and other states have adopted to address the harmful exposure pathway, increasing potential liability for developers. “States across the country have various vapor intrusion regulations and guidance, but California has always been the most aggressive in regulating and managing the risks of contaminant vapor inhalation,” states an April 7...

Court Backs Novel CERCLA Reporting Waiver Despite CAA Permit Violation

A federal court in Pennsylvania has backed a potentially precedent-setting industry defense in an environmental citizen suit, agreeing with the defendant steel mill that it is exempt from Superfund reporting requirements if it holds Clean Air Act (CAA) permits even if its emissions violate those permits. In a May 14 ruling , in Clean Air Council (CAC) v. United States Steel Corporation , Judge Marilyn Horan of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania granted the defendant’s...

EPA Suggests Dropping Plan To Regulate Perchlorate In Drinking Water

EPA is signaling that it will likely pull back from regulating perchlorate, an ingredient in rocket fuel and munitions, in drinking water -- an unsurprising action given the views of utility officials who have long indicated that state standards have reduced exposures and made it difficult for the agency to meet legal criteria for regulating. In a May 14 press release and accompanying documents, EPA says it is releasing information showing perchlorate has been reduced in drinking water due to...

Environmentalists Again Target EPA Refusal To Write CERCLA 108 Rule

Environmentalists are suggesting they may challenge EPA’s refusal proposal to forego writing a Superfund rule requiring chemical manufacturers to provide financial assurances to cover any potential future cleanup costs, despite an earlier court ruling that gave the agency significant discretion on whether to craft such rules. “EPA’s proposal lacks support in the record, is contrary to [the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation & Liability Act (CERCLA)], and will increase the toxic burden on already overburdened communities,” Earthjustice writes in May 6...

EPA rejects industry request to pare back Portland Harbor remedy

EPA Region 10 is rejecting industry parties’ formal request to pare back the cleanup remedy at the massive Portland Harbor Superfund site, though officials have recently renegotiated portions of unilateral cleanup orders requiring remedial design work at the site with two of the parties. The agency, however, declines to say at this time whether it has undertaken, or plans to take, any enforcement actions to uphold the unilateral administrative orders (UAOs), which generally allow the agency to impose treble damages...

High Court’s CERCLA Ruling Adds Uncertainty To Cleanups, Lawyers Warn

The high court’s ruling giving state courts jurisdiction to hear contamination damages claims but preserving EPA authority to decide on any additional Superfund remedy may add uncertainty to the finality of cleanup decisions, creating openings for landowners seeking remedy revisions provided they obtain EPA’s approval, say attorneys. The high court’s ruling “reaches the reasonable result that the federal government’s cleanup decision under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (“CERCLA”) . . . probably cannot be superseded by a...

EPA Deregulatory Agenda Speeds Ahead But Possible COVID Hurdles Await

EPA continues to advance its deregulatory efforts and is largely rejecting calls from environmentalists and others to halt a suite of rulemakings amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but industry attorneys are warning that does not mean the widespread disruptions caused by the virus will spare the agency’s efforts. That assessment comes as President Donald Trump is soon expected to announce a “sweeping” deregulatory push that highlights how the issue remains a priority throughout the administration, which would add new measures to...

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