Waste

From brownfields to Superfund sites, and from coal waste rules to handling hazardous waste, this section tracks EPA's efforts to tackle a wide-ranging waste agenda.

Topic Subtitle
From brownfields to Superfund sites, and from coal waste rules to handling hazardous waste, this section tracks EPA's efforts to tackle a wide-ranging waste agenda.

Trump EPA Still Evaluating Path Ahead For PFAS Rules, Top Official Says

NEW YORK -- The Trump EPA is still figuring out how to move ahead with PFAS regulations, such as the landmark Biden-era drinking water and Superfund rules, a top official says, as the agency seeks a range of stakeholder feedback to determine how to mitigate costs and other compliance issues. “Everything was on the table for each of the actions that we have been reviewing and [we’re] really trying to understand what is the best path forward,” Travis Voyles, EPA’s...

Industry Eyes Senate To Kill Superfund Chemical Tax After House Loss

A chemical industry group is pledging to work with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and other senators in an effort to repeal the Superfund excise tax on chemicals in budget reconciliation legislation, after House lawmakers approved the legislation last week without such provisions. But the effort may face a high bar as any repeal of the taxes would likely have to offset any lost revenue to ensure it remains budget neutral -- or face a 60-vote threshold under Senate budget rules...

EPA Faces Competing Pressures Over Plans For CERCLA PFAS Rule

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers -- 40 Democrats and 4 Republicans -- is urging EPA to retain the Biden-era rule designating two PFAS as Superfund “hazardous substances” while industry groups call for its repeal, highlighting the tricky task the agency faces as it weighs next steps in litigation over the measure. The competing pressures come as a top EPA official says the agency is likely to ask a federal appellate court for more time to decide what to do...

ExxonMobil Rebuts Groups’ Key Claim In Seeking Dismissal Of Plastics Suit

ExxonMobil is rebutting environmentalists’ response to why their federal lawsuit alleging the company engaged in “deceptive public messaging” to promote recycling as a solution to plastic waste concerns should not be dismissed, asserting the groups make it clear they have failed to state a claim as required by law. “The most striking feature of Plaintiffs’ opposition brief is the argument they do not make. Plaintiffs’ Complaint alleges that ExxonMobil is liable in nuisance and under the [Unfair Competition Law (UCL)]...

DOD Finds At Least 574 Sites Require RI/FS For PFAS Contamination

The Defense Department (DOD) has completed preliminary investigation work examining PFAS contamination at 99 percent of the more than 700 military bases where the defense law required such testing, finding that 574 require a remedial investigation/feasibility study (RI/FS) to determine cleanup actions while no action is required at 131 sites. As of September 2024 -- the end of last fiscal year -- DOD says it determined that 722 of its properties -- active military bases; Base Realignment and Closure, or...

4th Circuit Denies States’ Bid For En Banc Review Of PFAS Venue Ruling

The 4th Circuit has denied Maryland and South Carolina’s petition for the full court to reconsider a panel’s ruling that clears the way for 3M to remove the states’ PFAS contamination suits to federal court, where the company will be able to defend against liability claims by arguing it acted as a government contractor. In a May 28 order , the clerk said the petition was circulated to all active judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th...

Environmentalists Vow New Suit Against Alabama Power For CCR Violations

Citing EPA’s Biden-era findings, environmentalists are threatening to sue Alabama Power over alleged violations of EPA’s 2015 coal combustion residuals (CCR) rule, an action that could test the Trump administration’s willingness to intervene in the matter and head off any citizen suit. The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) filed a May 20 notice of intent on behalf of Coosa Riverkeeper notifying Alabama Power of its intent to sue for violations of the CCR rule and the open dumping prohibition under...

Agencies Ramp Up Study On PFAS’ Risks To Children But Downplay Rules

EPA and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are ramping up their efforts to research the cumulative risks that PFAS and other substances pose to children, responding to findings from the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) report, which called for more study on the impacts of such exposures. The May 22 report , “Make Our Children Healthy Again: Assessment,” also touts the Trump EPA’s decision to implement part of the Biden-era drinking water standards as it reconsiders limits...

Key Lawmaker Charges New Draft Plastics Recycling Rules Are Unlawful

A high-ranking California state lawmaker is criticizing revised draft rules by the Newsom administration to implement the landmark 2022 law SB 54 requiring an extended producer responsibility (EPR) program for plastic recycling, saying they flout the law in part by allowing exemptions for certain products. “[W]e have concerns with several provisions that appear to conflict with law. Notably, it appears the proposed draft regulations exempt certain products that are clearly in the program’s scope,” Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) said...

Industry Urges CERCLA PFAS Rule Repeal After Zeldin’s Reg Support

Industry groups are urging a top White House official to rescind the Biden-era rule designating two PFAS as Superfund “hazardous substances” after EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced his support for maintaining the law’s “polluter pays” model and his plans to work with Congress on targeted liability carveouts for so-called passive receivers. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and 14 other industry groups May 12 wrote White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought, recommending the administration rescind the...

Former Trump Official Says New EPA Goal To Claw Back Biden ‘Overreach’

A former top EPA official who served during President Donald Trump’s first term says the end goal for the agency in Trump’s second term is to claw back Biden-era regulatory overreach, particularly under the Clean Air Act, while noting EPA must nevertheless comply with what the official calls an outdated law. “The last major amendment was 35 years ago,” the source says, citing the 1990 air act amendments. Since then, “there have been a ton of developments. Pollution is going...

Fearing Superfund, MS4s Urge EPA To Scrap PFAS Monitoring From MSGP

Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s) are urging EPA to drop first-time PFAS monitoring mandates included in a Biden-era proposed multi-sector general permit (MSGP) for industrial stormwater, arguing stormwater systems could become liable under the Superfund law without any Congressional protections for passive receivers. “While EPA has publicly stated that their intention is to not hold MS4s and other public entities liable for PFAS transport, it was stated that EPA does not have the ability to indemnify these entities from...

6th Circuit Vacates District Court Order On Future Superfund Cost Liability

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit is vacating a lower court’s order holding two paper companies liable for future Superfund response costs at the Kalamazoo River Superfund site, emphasizing the court’s precedent and urging the parties to commit to completing their Superfund cleanups. Judge Raymond Kethledge of the 6th Circuit in a May 12 opinion in Georgia-Pacific Consumer Products LP (GP), et al., v. NCR Corporation, et al. finds that a lower...

Lawmakers May Struggle With Scope Of PFAS ‘Passive Receivers’ Relief

Lawmakers could face difficulties in determining which sectors and activities should be categorized as “passive receivers” and be given a waiver for those actions from Superfund liability for PFAS contamination, even as momentum within the Trump administration and Congress to provide such relief has built. While environmental groups continue to oppose such carveouts, action to try to provide such relief appears more likely than in the last Congress, with Republicans now controlling the Senate and as EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin...

Comment period starts on EPA approval of North Dakota CCR program

EPA is formally starting the 60-day public comment period for its proposed approval of North Dakota’s request to operate its own coal combustion residuals (CCR) permitting program, marking the first of such approvals that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has called a priority for the Trump administration. EPA’s proposed approval of North Dakota’s coal ash program is scheduled to be published in the May 16 Federal Register , starting the public comment period that is scheduled to run until July 15...

3M, New Jersey Reach $450 Million Deal For Manufacturer’s PFAS Liability

PFAS manufacturer 3M has reached a proposed settlement of up to $450 million with New Jersey over long-running PFAS cleanup and natural resource damages (NRD) claims, as well as the state’s claims over the company’s production of firefighting foam under multidistrict litigation (MDL) -- the largest such PFAS settlement in the state’s history. 3M’s decision to settle comes just a week before a federal court is set to hold the first of a series of mini-trials focused on the New...

Democrats Commit To Bipartisan EPW Bills, Despite Trump Concerns

Democrats on the Senate environment committee are pledging to develop bipartisan legislation on water resources development, transportation projects, and Superfund permitting policy, even as they are renewing concerns that the Trump administration’s various funding freezes would complicate such efforts. Their comments came during a May 14 hearing in which the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) discussed President Donald Trump’s nominations of John Busterud to serve as assistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM), Adam...

EPA ordered to respond to phosphogypsum mandamus petition

The D.C. Circuit is ordering EPA to respond within 30 days to a suit from environmentalists seeking to force the agency to respond to their 2021 petition urging the agency to regulate phosphogypsum under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Judges Cornelia Pillard, Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a May 12 order requiring EPA to respond by June 11 to the environmentalists’ March 10 petition for...

U.S. PFAS Imports May Drop After Stockholm Convention Bans LC-PFCAs

Members of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) have agreed to ban the production, use, import and export of long-chain perfluorocarboxylic acids (LC-PFCAs) and products that contain them, an action that could limit imports of the chemicals even in non-member countries like the United States, sources say. “I think that although the U.S. is not a Party to the Convention, it will affect global markets and availability for import,” Pamela Miller, co-chair of the International Pollutants Elimination Network...

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