ISSUE: Superfund Report

DOI floats final rule streamlining Superfund NRD

The Interior Department (DOI) has sent its final rule updating Superfund natural resource damage assessment and restoration (NRDAR) rules to the White House for review, a final step before issuing any measure to overhaul the rarely used “Type A” streamlined assessments to provide more flexibility and encourage settlements. According to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), DOI submitted the rule for regulatory review July 18. Such reviews usually take about 90 days, though they can be faster or slower,...

EPA Overhaul To Consolidate OLEM, Combine Personnel And Budget Work

The second phase of EPA’s reorganization will combine the Office of Land and Emergency Management’s (OLEM’s) Superfund office with the emergency management office, while consolidating agency personnel and budget offices to “realize efficiencies.” The restructuring moves, announced July 17 , would also move administrative law judges (ALJs) who adjudicate some enforcement cases directly into Administrator Lee Zeldin’s office. The announcement comes after the Supreme Court greenlighted the Trump administration’s plans for restructuring and mass firings. The reorganization will also see...

House Defense Policy Bill Calls On DOD To Accelerate PFAS Cleanups

The House Armed Services Committee has approved defense authorization legislation that includes several provisions addressing PFAS, including an amendment that would require the Defense Department (DOD) to accelerate PFAS cleanups as well as a measure requiring DOD to provide alternative water to owners of private wells with PFAS exceedances. The committee adopted these and other per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) amendments during the panel’s July 15 markup of H.R. 3838, the fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The...

Groups sue over EPA’s controversial Oak Ridge cleanup plan

Six environmental groups are suing EPA and the Department of Energy (DOE) over the agency’s controversial and precedential Trump-era decision, later upheld by the Biden administration, easing Clean Water Act (CWA) requirements for DOE’s Superfund cleanup at the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) in Tennessee. The groups filed a July 12 complaint to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, charging that EPA and DOE’s cleanup activities at the site violate a 1991 federal facility agreement (FFA) between the...

EPA Plans To ‘Re-Align’ OECA Functions In Second Reorganization Phase

EPA has announced the second phase of its massive reorganization effort, including likely overhauling parts of the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA), making unspecified changes to the Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM) and consolidating administrative and financial functions into one office. “This action is the latest part of EPA’s comprehensive reorganization efforts to address agency inefficiencies by delivering organizational improvements to personnel structure that directly benefit the American people and improve EPA’s ability to fulfill its...

EPA Gives More Time For CCR Rule Compliance Amid Pending Rollbacks

EPA is extending compliance deadlines and offering utilities additional relief from various elements of Biden-era coal combustion residuals (CCR) regulations, with observers seeing the moves as an attempt to buy time for Trump administration officials to develop substantive rollbacks of those policies. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin on July 17 signed a prepublication version of a direct final rule, as well as a companion proposal, that would extend compliance deadlines for facilities covered by the Biden-era “legacy” CCR rule. The rule...

Industry Urges EPA, Congress To Cut Lookback In PFAS Reporting Rule

Manufacturing and technology industry groups are urging EPA to work with Congress to significantly cut the lookback period that companies are currently subjected to when reporting information about their PFAS-containing products under TSCA, arguing the reporting data should reflect current PFAS uses rather than historical uses. EPA’s Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) rule requiring manufacturers to report on their per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) uses in products, which Congress required the agency to craft in fiscal year 2020 defense legislation,...

House GOP Backs Chemical Industry Call To Ease EPA’s Pyrolysis Rules

House Republicans are endorsing industry calls to ease EPA regulations on controversial chemical recycling processes advanced by the chemical industry, though Democrats say the technology endangers public health and are urging Congress to instead address existing deficiencies in the nation’s recycling infrastructure. Congress should “assess regulatory barriers to proliferation of new technologies and strategies to grow domestic manufacturing capabilities while keeping valuable materials out of landfills,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-KY) told a July 16 hearing...

Judge Blocks ‘Extraordinary’ DOJ Bid To Halt New Jersey Superfund Suit

A federal judge is blocking the Trump administration’s attempt to pause litigation while it reconsiders its position on Superfund liability for the Passaic River, after small parties in the case said the unusual request failed to explain why EPA is considering changing course on the agreement it pursued for nearly a decade. The Justice Department (DOJ) on July 3 requested a 60-day abeyance in the appeal of a major settlement agreement for dozens of parties responsible for pollution in the...

House Republicans’ FY26 Legislation Details EPA Cuts, Policy Restrictions

House Republicans are proposing a $2.1 billion cut to EPA spending in fiscal year 2026, which is about a quarter less than its current budget but higher than the Trump administration’s request, while also floating numerous policy riders that would block or restrict Biden-era air and water policies. The House Appropriations Committee on July 14 released its FY26 bill for EPA, Interior and related agencies ahead of a planned markup July 15. Overall, it details a $2.1 billion reduction to...

Conservatives Channel ‘Abundance’ In Push For Access To Public Lands

The conservative Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) is channeling the new “abundance” theory, aimed at boosting Democrats’ political fortunes, in a bid to challenge various environmental protections on public lands including by limiting EPA’s Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction and encouraging greater activity such as natural resource development. Mark Miller, director of PLF’s new Environment & Natural Resources practice group, says the effort was created in response to President Donald Trump embracing the “abundance agenda,” and says it will focus on...

D.C. Circuit pauses phosphogypsum deadline suit

The D.C. Circuit is granting EPA’s bid to pause environmentalists’ suit seeking to force the agency to respond to their 2021 petition to regulate phosphogypsum under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), citing preliminary discussions amongst the parties that could resolve the suit. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in a July 3 order grants EPA’s motion to hold the suit In re: Center for Biological Diversity, et al. in abeyance, directing the...

Coal Ash Inspection Analysis Seeks To Bolster Biden EPA ‘Legacy’ Rule

Environmentalists’ new analysis of coal combustion residuals (CCR) surface impoundments identifies significant concerns with coal ash storage and disposal in facilities across the country, arguing the data bolsters the need for a Biden-era rule governing so-called “legacy” surface impoundments that Trump officials are reconsidering. Lisa Evans, senior counsel at Earthjustice, in a July 10 blog post notes she examined first-ever inspection reports for coal ash facilities, as required by the Biden-era legacy rule, and identified “dangerous conditions across the country.”...

Power Sector Urges North Dakota CCR Program Approval, Seeking Certainty

Local power industry groups are urging EPA to swiftly approve North Dakota’s application to operate its own coal combustion residuals (CCR) permitting program in lieu of federal requirements, arguing the state program would provide greater certainty and localized oversight more tailored to the state’s unique characteristics. “A state-run program improves regulatory certainty for operators, for facilities that are investing millions of dollars in long-term planning. Knowing the rules and knowing that the people enforcing them are close to the ground...

Environmentalists Use Novel Suit To Challenge EPA’s TSCA Petition Denial

Three environmental groups are suing EPA in a federal district court over the agency’s recent denial of their petition asking EPA to ban the use of hydrogen fluoride (HF) in refineries, sparking a little-used judicial review process that could lead to a novel ruling on whether the agency should address chemical accidents or spills under reformed TSCA. Clean Air Council (CAC), Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed a July 8 complaint in the...

House Lawmakers Push Bill To Boost DOD Transparency On PFAS Cleanups

Two House lawmakers from Michigan are pushing legislation that would increase the Defense Department’s (DOD) accountability to the public on its efforts to clean up PFAS contamination, as DOD undertakes investigations and cleanups of the chemicals at hundreds of bases that are expected to exceed $9 billion. Reps. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-MI) and Jack Bergman (R-MI) introduced the Military PFAS Transparency Act June 27, aimed at getting the military to provide more information to more than 600 communities across the...

EPA Reverses Plan To Rewrite TSCA Asbestos Rule, Eyes Guidance Instead

The Trump EPA is reversing course on its approach to the Biden-era TSCA rule phasing out six uses of chrysotile asbestos, announcing that for now it is considering crafting guidance for regulated sectors rather than revising the rule -- a turnabout from its message just weeks ago to the 5th Circuit when it sought a further pause in litigation to rewrite the rule. “[T]he Agency has further reconsidered the challenged rule and no longer intends to conduct notice-and-comment rulemaking to...

House GOP Taps Rep. Palmer, LCRI Critic, To Lead Key Environment Panel

House Republicans have named Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL), a strong critic of the Biden EPA’s rule requiring replacement of lead service lines, to lead the Energy and Commerce subcommittee that oversees the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and several other major environmental laws. Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY), chairman of the full committee, July 3 announced Palmer’s appointment to lead the environment subcommittee following a leadership shuffle due to Rep. Buddy Carter’s (R-GA) resignation from another subcommittee chairmanship. Carter had chaired...

EPA’s Proposed FY26 Budget Cuts May Stymie Range Of PFAS Goals

The Trump EPA in its fiscal year 2026 budget justification appears to be supporting a swath of initiatives to tackle PFAS contamination, including Superfund cleanups, drinking water issues and toxicity research, but the agency’s planned cuts across several programs related to PFAS are likely to undercut that commitment. EPA’s recently released FY26 budget justification repeatedly signals EPA’s intent to prioritize addressing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination through Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) cleanups, research into toxicity...

EPA Seeks Fourth Extension In Case Challenging CERCLA PFAS Rule

The Trump EPA is asking the D.C. Circuit to once again delay industry litigation challenging the landmark Biden-era rule listing two PFAS as Superfund “hazardous substances,” the fourth time the agency has sought such a delay to give officials more time to decide on how or whether they will seek to revise the rule amid competing interests. EPA July 2 filed an unopposed motion asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to continue abeyance for...

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