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.

EAB denies challenge to carbon capture UIC permit

EPA's Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) has denied a challenge from an Illinois landowner over a modified underground injection permit for carbon capture and sequestration, finding the landowner “has not demonstrated that review of this permit modification is warranted on any of the grounds presented.” Jeffrey Sprague filed his challenge earlier this year and raised four claims. He said EPA Region 5 abused its discretion in declining to extend the public comment period on the permit modification; erred in failing to...

Ohio wastewater plant suit poses test of EPA's oil & gas ELG

Citizens in Ohio are suing a wastewater treatment plant alleging Clean Water Act (CWA) permit violations from the facility's treatment of oil and gas wastewater, posing an early challenge to compliance with treatment mandates since EPA's issuance in late 2016 of final effluent limitation guidelines (ELG) for the discharges. The suit , filed June 27 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio's Eastern District by residents of Warren, OH, asks for civil penalties for CWA permit...


High Court Rejection Of Gold King Case Creates Doubts Over District Suit

The Supreme Court's order rejecting New Mexico's suit against Colorado over its role in the 2015 Gold King Mine spill creates doubts over a pending district court case over the spill, because it leaves open the possibility of a ruling that the lower court suit is invalid and cannot move forward because Colorado is not involved in the case. The high court in June 26 orders denied without explanation New Mexico's request to file a bill of complaint against Colorado,...

Peer Reviewers Question EPA Drinking Water Lead Modeling Approaches

Scientific experts reviewing proposed modeling approaches that EPA plans to use in revising its Safe Drinking Water Act lead and copper rule are questioning whether the methods can fully address risks to key populations, noting limitations in each of the three approaches -- although the peer reviewers are generally supportive of EPA's efforts. EPA has not determined exactly how it will use the value it is calling a health-based benchmark, which aims to predict the relationship between levels of lead...

Center for Biological Diversity Comment Letter

California Independent Petroleum Association Comment Letter


NAHB faults EPA stormwater permit's 'retention' mandates

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is signaling that it will challenge EPA's authority to set on-site stormwater retention mandates for new construction through Clean Water Act (CWA) permits as part of its suit over the agency's statewide general permit for small municipal separate storm systems (MS4s) in New Hampshire. NAHB filed its statement of issues June 26 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in consolidated challenges to the MS4 permit issued on...

Court Maintains Utility ELG Delay Suit, Extending Uncertainty On EPA Power

A federal district court judge has rejected the Trump EPA's bid to quickly dismiss environmentalists' suit over its indefinite delay of compliance deadlines in the Obama agency's power plant effluent rule, extending the legal uncertainty over the Trump administration's authority for contested stays it has issued for a slew of Obama-era rules. In a June 26 order , Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rejects a motion from the Department of Justice...

EPA agrees to reduce WIFIA fees for low-income communities

EPA has issued a final rule rule governing application fees for its Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) grants, agreeing with some stakeholders' suggestions that it reduce and revise its fee structure for small and low-income communities. But the final rule, published in the June 28 Federal Register denied requests to waive the fees for projects that serve populations with median household incomes (MHI) that are 80 percent or more below a state's median. The regulation largely maintains...

EPA Touts Deference To States In Rule To Repeal CWA Jurisdiction Policy

EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers' proposed rule to repeal the Obama administration's Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction policy and reinstate George W. Bush-era standards for determining the law's scope are signaling that they will invoke deference to states' authority over waters in a pending rule to create a new jurisdiction standard. The proposed rule , which EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt signed June 27 ahead of its upcoming publication in the Federal Register , would repeal the Obama administration's...


EPA signs CWA jurisdiction rule repeal, sparking criticism

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has announced that the agency has signed a proposed rule to repeal the Obama administration's Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction rule, a measure that once final will fulfill a campaign commitment by President Donald Trump but one that is renewing criticism from environmentalists who say it will harm water quality. Pruitt told the Senate Interior appropriations subcommittee June 27 that the proposed repeal rule is being "sent to the Federal Register as of today." Pruitt...

EPA Said To Eye Former State Officials For Water, General Counsel Slots

EPA is said to be considering two former state environment officials for top slots leading its water and general counsel's office: Matthew Z. Leopold, a former Florida official for the general counsel spot, and David Ross, a former Wisconsin official to head the water office, sources say. Leopold was general counsel for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and is now in private practice, serving as of counsel at the Carlton Fields law firm in Tallahassee. He also worked...

EPA rejects petition on Washington water standards

EPA has quietly rejected a petition filed by environmentalists seeking to strengthen Washington state's water quality standards for three toxic substances, clearing the way for a substantive legal challenge to the agency's denial that will focus on the adequacy of the state's standards. EPA's acting water chief Mike Shapiro last month denied a 2013 petition filed by Northwest Environmental Advocates (NWEA) seeking to an update to the state's Clean Water Act (CWA) water quality criteria for dioxin, arsenic and thallium...

Pruitt Faces Early Legal Tests Over Efforts To Delay Obama-Era EPA Rules

EPA is using both the Clean Air Act and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) to delay Obama-era regulations -- a tactic to buy time for the Trump administration to rewrite the rules -- but environmentalists' challenges to those stalling tactics could be first legal tests to the bounds of EPA's authority to administratively stay its rules. Sources say the legal challenges to EPA's efforts to delay rules governing methane emissions at oil and gas facilities, updated facility safety requirements and...

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