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.

New Mexico legislators urge Pruitt to act on Gold King claims

New Mexico's congressional delegation is urging EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to investigate new avenues for paying damages to individuals and groups who were harmed by the 2015 Gold King Mine wastewater spill, calling the Obama administration's denial of tort claims from the spill a “broken promise.” The May 8 letter to Pruitt from the state's delegation says EPA should use funds that the 2016 Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act authorized for Gold King assistance to pay for...

EPA Faces Suit Over Denial Of Petition To End Alabama's CWA Permitting

Environmentalists are suing EPA over its denial of several petitions asking the agency to withdraw Alabama's delegated Clean Water Act (CWA) permitting authority, after the agency found earlier this year that deficiencies in the states penalty assessment process and budget levels were not enough to revoke the permitting authority. A coalition of seven environmental groups asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit May 5 to review EPA's Jan. 11 response to the groups, which include Cahaba Riverkeeper,...

Petition To 11th Circuit

EPA Final Response


Lawsuit Highlights EPA Challenge In Addressing Lake Erie Water Quality

A new lawsuit by a coalition of environmental and wildlife conservation groups against EPA is highlighting the challenge the agency faces in trying to advance a coordinated response to nutrient pollution in Lake Erie while also generally leaving water quality regulatory decisions up to states. The groups, led by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), sued EPA recently in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to force the agency to approve or disapprove Ohio's 2016 list of impaired...

EPA, Corps seek state input on CWA 'waters' definition

EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers are asking state governors to weigh in on how the federal agencies should define the scope of the Clean Water Act (CWA) consistent with Justice Antonin Scalia’s opinion in the 2006 case Rapanos v. United States , citing the Trump administration's driving principle of cooperative federalism. EPA and the Corps wrote to the governors May 8 as part of a two-step process to re-codify the definition of “waters of the United States” to...

In First, EPA Plans To Grant North Dakota Permit 'Primacy' For CCS Wells

EPA is proposing to approve North Dakota as the first state to win “primacy” for issuing Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) permits for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) wells, which Administrator Scott Pruitt and other officials say will help advance CCS technologies and could also encourage other states to seek similar authorities. The proposed action highlights the paradoxical approach to greenhouse gas regulation being adopted by Pruitt and Trump administration officials, who are generally seeking to repeal or roll back...

Dominion Power's Brief

Environmentalists' Brief


EPA targets May 11 for settlement in Pebble Mine 'veto' suit

EPA and the company behind the planned Pebble Mine near Bristol Bay, AK, are set to announce a settlement in long-running litigation over the agency's proposed Clean Water Act (CWA) “veto” of the project as soon as May 11, according to a new joint filing in the case. Pebble Limited Partnership (PLP) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) on EPA's behalf filed a joint May 4 request for a one-week extension in the stay of PLP v. EPA , saying...

Contractors push to merge 404 permitting, NEPA reviews

An association representing builders and contractors is urging lawmakers to support their effort to streamline environmental permitting by merging the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review process with the Clean Water Act (CWA) permit program for discharge of dredge-and-fill material. In May 3 testimony to the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee (EPW), Leah Pilconis, senior environmental law and policy advisor to Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), urged lawmakers to support their effort to have regulators merge the two...

Senate Testimony

Commerce Department Comments


Judge Rejects EPA Push To Stay Conductivity TMDL Order During Appeal

A federal district court judge has rejected EPA's request to stay an order requiring the agency to act on West Virginia's decision not to craft cleanup plans for waters with high conductivity while EPA appeals the order, saying “the Court is unconvinced that EPA has made a showing that it has any chance of success on appeal.” The May 2 order from Chief Judge Robert C. Chambers of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia finds...

Group touts feedlot exemption ruling in wastewater suit

A recent appellate ruling that struck down EPA's reporting exemption for animal feedlots is again being cited by industry groups suing over Obama-era environmental policies, this time to force nationwide application of an appellate decision that limited the agency's Clean Water Act (CWA) authority to restrict wastewater “blending." The Coalition for Regulatory Reasonableness (CRR), which represents some municipalities and local wastewater plants, filed a May 3 letter with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit saying...

District Court Decision

Stay Motion To 4th Circuit



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