ISSUE: Water Policy Report

Democrats Fear OECA Nominee Will Allow Political Bias In Enforcement

Senate Democrats are raising concerns that Jeffrey Hall, President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as EPA’s enforcement chief, will subject the agency’s enforcement actions to political bias, citing in part the agency’s recent dismissal of a Biden-era enforcement action against a California company that donated to the Trump campaign. The Senate Environment & Public Works Committee (EPW) during a July 23 hearing reviewed Hall’s nominations, Trump’s pick to serve as assistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance...

D.C. Circuit Grants EPA Request To Lift Stay In PFAS SDWA Rule Suit

The D.C. Circuit has granted EPA’s request to reactivate litigation brought by industry and water utilities challenging the Biden-era rule limiting PFAS in drinking water, ordering the parties to provide to the court by Aug. 1 proposals for a schedule and format to complete briefing in the case. In a July 22 order , the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit grants EPA’s July 21 motion to govern future proceedings in the consolidated American Water Works...

State Officials Weigh CWA’s Effectiveness In Meeting Water Quality Goals

The Association of Clean Water Administrators (ACWA), which represents state water regulators, is seeking input from its members on the effectiveness of the Clean Water Act (CWA) in meeting its water quality goals, a move that opens the door to states eventually weighing in on any EPA or congressional efforts to overhaul the law. According to a state source, ACWA recently created a CWA Program Review Task Force charged with evaluating the effectiveness of the water law in meeting its...

Democrats Seek To Counter EPA Reorganization In GOP’s Pending CWA Bill

House Democrats are seeking to counter the Trump EPA sweeping reorganization of agency offices and functions, filing what are likely to be messaging amendments to pending Clean Water Act (CWA) legislation that would require officials to rehire some laid-off staff to ensure effective CWA implementation and restore the disbanded research office. While the amendments, filed with the House Rules Committee ahead of a July 21 markup of H.R. 3898, are unlikely to be ruled in order, they telegraph Democrats’ messaging...

Trump EPA Continues Appeal Of Novel TSCA Ruling On Fluoridation

The Trump EPA has followed through with the Biden-era appeal of a federal judge’s precedential decision ordering EPA to regulate drinking water fluoridation under TSCA, raising substantive arguments that the judge abused his discretion and erred in his view of the role of the law’s citizen petitions, while also offering a new standing argument. The Justice Department (DOJ) on behalf of EPA filed its opening brief in the appeal late July 18, following multiple requests for delays and extensions as...

PLF Appeals CWA Jurisdiction Finding, Citing ‘Near Identical’ To Sackett

Free-market legal group Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) is appealing an Army Corps of Engineers finding that a wetland is subject to Clean Water Act (CWA) regulation that the group says is a “near identical” situation to the one in Sackett v. EPA , where the Supreme Court significantly narrowed the reach of the CWA. The renewed litigation push comes as the Trump EPA is seeking to revise a Biden-era rule implementing that decision. PLF on July 8 filed an administrative...

OECA Reorganization Will Be ‘Relatively Mild,’ But Buyout Losses Loom

EPA’s plans to restructure the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) mainly consist of small-bore changes that are unlikely to raise structural barriers to enforcement, sources say, though a new round of buyout and retirement offers could prove more drastic. The reorganization’s main goals include consolidating offices to reflect decreased staff levels, moving non-law enforcement functions to program offices and housing certain administrative functions in one place, former longtime EPA enforcement official Gary Jonesi tells Inside EPA July...

Environmentalists Warn EPA Over Industry Bid To Revive Trump 401 Rule

Industry groups are urging EPA to quickly reinstate the first Trump administration’s policy governing states’ Clean Water Act (CWA) section 401 water quality certifications, but environmentalists are warning that reinstating the 2020 rule, which was vacated by a federal court before being temporarily reinstated by the Supreme Court, would not pass legal muster. Weakening section 401 “would be on very shaky ground,” Daniel Estrin, general counsel and legal director of Waterkeeper Alliance, said during EPA’s July 16 listening session on...

Industry Lawyers Warn High Court Move May Open Citizen Suit Floodgates

Industry attorneys are warning that the Supreme Court’s recent decision not to consider overturning two lower court rulings regarding citizen suits could open the floodgates to many more such suits seeking to enforce the Clean Air Act (CAA) and Clean Water Act (CWA), even as the Trump administration is easing environmental enforcement. The high court’s move leaves in place “lower court rulings that allow for broad private citizen enforcement” under both laws, attorneys with Crowell & Moring say in a...

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...

Parties Provide New Details On Injunction Bid In Chemours PFAS Permit Suit

Environmentalists and PFAS manufacturer Chemours are providing a federal district court with additional arguments on whether environmentalists have met standing and “irreparable harm” requirements to obtain a preliminary injunction that could require an immediate limit on PFAS discharges at Chemours’ West Virginia facility. The new briefs from Chemours and West Virginia Rivers Coalition (WVRC) are the latest in a series of filings following a May 21-23 preliminary injunction hearing before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West...

EPA Reorganization Foes Adopt New Strategy After Supreme Court Ruling

In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling allowing mass firings and reorganizations to proceed at EPA and other agencies, Trump administration opponents are pursuing a new legal strategy to stop the overhauls -- one that could finally reveal EPA’s closely held reorganization and policy plans. The high court’s July 8 ruling allowed the administration to proceed with the restructuring while an appeals court considers the legality of an executive order (EO) and memorandum ordering agencies to create and implement...

NDWAC Meeting May Provide Details On EPA’s SDWA PFAS Rule Revisions

EPA’s plan to consult with its drinking water advisory committee at a public meeting later this month on proposed revisions to its PFAS drinking water limits may provide a first glimpse of much-anticipated details on how the agency expects to retain part of the Biden-era rule while rescinding and reconsidering other aspects of it. In a notice published in the Federal Register July 10, EPA announces that its Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water will meet with the...

Agencies’ NEPA Policies May Create Paradox Over Rulemaking Authority

Agencies’ moves to update their National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) policies are creating a paradox by retaining a slim selection of formal “rules” governing processes that are exempt from NEPA while revoking substantive portions of their rules and replacing them with non-binding guidance, according to a former top NEPA official. The Department of Energy (DOE), the Department of the Interior (DOI), the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last week...

States, Environmentalists Renew Fears Of Reissuing ‘General’ 404 Permits

Environmentalists and state regulators are renewing concerns regarding the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ general nationwide permits (NWP) for the Clean Water Act (CWA) dredge-and-fill permitting process, warning the measures are inadequate to protect the nation’s waters and states are unable to properly certify projects. The concerns come as the Corps is poised to reissue a slew of NWPs, with slight modifications to some of the general permits. During a July 8 webinar held by the National Association of Wetland...

White House Science Guide Urges Transparency, AI-Based Enforcement

In new guidance implementing President Donald Trump’s “gold standard science” executive order (EO), the White House science office is urging the use of transparent data, demanding “viewpoint diversity” in peer reviews and suggesting artificial intelligence (AI) could be used to enforce the administration’s science policies. The June 23 guidance responds to Trump’s May 23 EO, which experts say paves the way for the return of the first Trump administration’s controversial restrictions on “secret science” and could increase political scrutiny of...

ENRD Struggles To Defend EPA Actions Amid Staff Cuts, Increased Suits

The Justice Department’s (DOJ) environment division is struggling to meet some court deadlines in litigation challenging EPA and other agencies’ actions as the department’s downsizing efforts collide with a growing number of suits challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to remake EPA. In several cases involving EPA, attorneys in DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) are asking district and appellate judges for extensions, citing heavy workloads and absent colleagues. In a June 10 motion filed in Sierra Club, et al....

EPA Floats Potential CWA ‘Veto’ Reconsideration In Lawsuit Negotiations

EPA is floating a potential reconsideration of its Biden-era Clean Water Act (CWA) “veto” of the controversial Pebble Mine project, as both the agency and developers suing over that decision are raising the possibility of settlement negotiations with the agency. EPA in a July 3 status report to the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, in Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. v. EPA , requests that the court extend a current 90-day abeyance in the suit for an additional...

Chamber CWA Policy Requests Could See Success In SRF Reauthorization

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is emphasizing its support for various water infrastructure and funding policies as House Republicans advance legislation to overhaul Clean Water Act (CWA) permitting processes, potentially pushing for such policies’ inclusion in the 2026 state revolving fund’s (SRF) reauthorization bill. The Chamber promotes “solutions that enjoy broad support,” in a June 25 letter to Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate environment committee, and Reps. Sam...

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