Water

Regulatory and legislative disputes over the clean water and safe drinking water acts have major implications for dischargers, utilities and others, and our Water section features the latest news from EPA, the courts and Congress.

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Regulatory and legislative disputes over the clean water and safe drinking water acts have major implications for dischargers, utilities and others, and our Water section features the latest news from EPA, the courts and Congress.

Biosolids PFAS Report Should Reflect More Realistic Conditions, States Say

State regulators are urging the Trump EPA to revise the modeling underpinning the Biden-era draft risk assessment of two legacy PFAS in biosolids to make it more applicable to state-specific conditions and outcomes, cautioning that the assessment’s use of certain risk assumptions and biosolids application rates fails to reflect realistic state practices. But state agencies do not all agree on the direction EPA should take. Some state regulators argue EPA should use stricter risk scenarios, such as accounting for infants...

Lawmakers Seek To Strike Defense Bill Measure Paring Back AFFF Phaseout

Two lawmakers have filed amendments aimed at eliminating a measure pending in the House defense authorization bill that would delay the Defense Department’s (DOD) phaseout of firefighting foam containing PFAS and expand an exemption for using the foam, signaling opposition to an attempt to weaken the phaseout requirements. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) -- co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional PFAS Task Force -- and George Whitesides (D-CA) filed separate but identical amendments to the House Rules Committee that would strike section...

Environmentalists sue to compel ‘worst case’ spill rule

Environmental groups are suing EPA over its failure to issue regulations to prevent and contain hazardous substance spills from non-transportation-related onshore facilities, charging that the agency’s failure to do so is arbitrary and capricious. In an Aug. 28 complaint in Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform, et al., v. EPA , the plaintiffs urged the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to declare the agency’s failure to issue hazardous substance spill regulations as unlawful,...

EPA Withdraws Slaughterhouse ELG Plan, Driving Likely Legal Challenges

EPA has formally withdrawn a Biden-era plan establishing tough effluent limits to curb nutrient and other releases from meat and poultry product (MPP) facilities, a move that is likely to draw challenges from environmentalists who sought to strengthen the proposal, though industry is applauding the withdrawal given fears of facility closures. In a notice slated for publication in the Sept. 3 Federal Register , EPA formally withdraws the Biden administration’s proposed Clean Water Act (CWA) effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs) for...

Water Systems Urge Trump EPA To Revise PFAS Biosolids Risk Assessment

Water systems and biosolids advocates are urging the Trump EPA to revise the modeling, including risk scenarios and human exposure assumptions, underlying the Biden-EPA’s draft risk assessment of two legacy PFAS in biosolids, charging it improperly calculated risks and overstated the harm the chemicals cause. “Overall, projected risks from individual pathways are overestimated as the risk assessment focuses on ‘worst-case scenarios,’” the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), which represents publicly owned wastewater and stormwater agencies, says in an...

EPA sends WOTUS proposal to OMB for interagency review

EPA has sent a proposed rule to revise the definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) that are subject to Clean Water Act (CWA) requirements to the White House for interagency review, with officials pledging to finalize the measure by the end of the year. The rule aims to align with the Supreme Court’s Sackett v. EPA decision that narrowed the scope of the CWA, particularly for wetlands. The agency’s draft proposed rule revising the definition of WOTUS...

Engineers Warn Of Costly, Complex Surface Water Treatment For PFAS

Environmental engineers are advising utilities to prepare for their treatment technology needs to tackle PFAS in surface water, emphasizing how the medium is often more difficult and expensive to treat, at a time when utilities are already struggling under the regulatory uncertainty from the proposed changes to the PFAS drinking water limits. “PFAS treatment for surface water is still [] relatively uncharted territory, mostly because much of our industry’s experience in PFAS removal has been from groundwater sources,” Jihyon Im,...

9th Circuit Grapples With Retroactive Application Of Sackett In Citizen Suit

An appellate panel is grappling with whether a district court properly rejected a defendant’s bid to dismiss a Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen suit post-verdict for lack of subject matter jurisdiction as a result of the Supreme Court’s Sackett v. EPA decision, appearing to test defendants’ ability to apply the high court’s precedent retroactively. A panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit heard Aug. 11 arguments in the suit Inland Empire Waterkeeper, et al., v....

EPA To Weigh 1,4-DX Limits In North Carolina CWA Permitting Battle

Environmentalists are concerned that the Trump EPA will drop its Biden-era support for North Carolina’s attempts to regulate discharges of the likely carcinogen 1,4-dioxane (1,4-DX) under the Clean Water Act (CWA), in a case that tests whether the new administration will require states to clamp down on the discharges in the absence of federal criteria. “Based on this administration’s actions thus far, we are concerned, but we do hope that EPA recognizes how important it is to protect North Carolina...

Judge Stays CWA PFAS Citizen Suit Amid Plaintiff Fears Of EPA Intervention

A federal judge has granted chemical manufacturer Chemours’ request to stay a Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen suit seeking to enforce discharge limits at its West Virginia plant while the company appeals a landmark preliminary injunction requiring the facility to immediately comply with its permit and limit its releases. While the Aug. 22 order maintains the preliminary injunction, which Chemours did not seek to stay, it is nonetheless a blow to the plaintiffs -- West Virginia Rivers Coalition (WVRC) and...

Environmentalists Resist EPA Plan To Refocus CHPAC On MAHA Goals

Environmentalists are opposing the Trump EPA’s plan to task the agency’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC) with focusing on actions to implement the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) strategy elements ahead of the committee’s meeting next week CHPAC, “historically an independent body providing science-based recommendations, would now be forced to ‘align’ its guidance with MAHA’s political agenda,” Earthjustice says in an Aug. 20 blog post . “This change risks turning a scientific advisory body into a rubber...

2023 TRI Analysis Shows Facilities Treated More PFAS Waste, Cut Releases

Facilities managed more PFAS waste in 2023 compared to previous years, according to EPA’s new analysis of 2023 data reported to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), but more of that waste was treated than before, resulting in a reduction in releases through air, water, land and other media compared to 2022. But the data for 2024 is expected to show an increase in volumes of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) waste as 2023 was the last reporting year when facilities...

D.C. Circuit allows environmentalists to intervene in LCRI suit

The D.C. Circuit has approved three environmental groups’ motion to intervene in water utilities’ lawsuit against the Biden-era Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI), a move that will allow the groups to provide a more full-throated defense of the measure shortly after the Trump EPA said it would defend the rule. In an Aug 20 order , the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit allowed Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Newburgh Clean Water Project and Sierra...

EPA Draws Suit Over Failure To Promulgate Final Florida Water Criteria

Environmentalists are suing EPA over its failure to finalize revised water quality criteria for protecting human health in Florida, charging that Administrator Lee Zeldin faces a nondiscretionary duty to issue such criteria and continues to unlawfully withhold their promulgation after the Trump administration paused White House review of the measure. Environmental Defense Alliance (EDA), a Birmingham, AL, group, and Waterkeepers Florida filed an Aug. 19 complaint to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, seeking to compel...

Montana Group Threatens Suit Over EPA Failure To Revise State’s WQS

A Montana environmental group is threatening to sue EPA over its failure to approve or disapprove the state’s revised water quality standards (WQS) for nutrients within Clean Water Act (CWA) deadlines, though the group charges that the standards are unlawful and the agency should disapprove it. The Upper Missouri Waterkeeper, a group based in Bozeman, MT, sent EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin an Aug. 7 notice of intent to sue (NOI) over what it charges is the agency’s failure to comply...

EPA Draws Fire For Dropping Biden-Era Listing For Nitrate-Impaired Waters

Environmentalists are criticizing the Trump EPA for rescinding Biden administration plans that would have listed waters in Iowa as impaired for nitrate and nitrite contamination, suggesting it undercuts their calls for the agency to clamp down on the releases from agricultural sources. “Iowa’s water crisis should be a call to action. Instead, Trump’s EPA is callously turning its back,” Food & Water Watch (F&WW) Legal Director Tarah Heinzen said in an Aug. 12 statement. “The data is clearer than ever...

Dischargers Cite TSCA 1,4-DX Re-Evaluation In Defense Against Water Suit

The city of Asheboro, NC, and a nearby plastics manufacturer are pointing to the Trump EPA’s reconsideration of a TSCA risk assessment for 1,4-dioxane (1,4-DX) in their defense of a Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen suit alleging they unlawfully discharged the chemical -- though environmentalists say EPA’s action is irrelevant. The defendants in Cape Fear River Watch and Haw River Assembly v. City of Asheboro, et al. , pending in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North...

ELG Ruling Could Delay Revisions Amid EPA Cuts, Former Official Says

A former EPA official says that the recent 9th Circuit ruling finding the agency unlawfully failed to revise effluent limits for seven industrial categories will require review of additional data in biennial program plans, a move that requires additional time and resources and could face additional delays due to Trump administration budget cuts. Betsy Southerland, who led EPA’s office that oversees the effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs) program, told Inside EPA in an interview that if the ruling stands, “EPA...

EPA Looks Beyond Biden-Era ELG, CCR Rules For Potential Revisions

EPA is looking beyond Biden-era rules governing coal-fired power plants’ effluent limitations and coal combustion residual (CCR) disposal at legacy sites for potential revision, signaling in recent legal filings as well as regulatory docket entries that it may revisit aspects of previous Trump and Obama-era rulemakings. EPA is currently in the midst of taking actions to extend compliance deadlines associated with the Biden administration’s 2024 rules strengthening effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs) for the steam electric generating category and setting requirements...

Draft MAHA Plan Sidesteps PFAS Advice, Seeks To Ease Pesticide Policy

A draft strategy from the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) Commission appears to sidestep calls for addressing PFAS while proposing to ease EPA policies governing pesticides and farm operations, a move that is sparking criticism from environmentalists who say it marks a turnabout from the panel’s initial report. The draft strategy , required by President Donald Trump’s executive order creating the panel, follows a May MAHA assessment that identified four potential drivers behind an increase in childhood chronic...

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