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.

White House AI Plan Seeks To Ease Environmental Rules For Data Centers

The White House’s broad plan to bolster artificial intelligence (AI) includes calls to ease or remove numerous environmental standards for construction of AI-related data centers, and create new exclusions from environmental review, new general clean water permits and eased rules under federal air, water and waste laws. “AI will require new infrastructure -- factories to produce chips, data centers to run those chips, and new sources of energy to power it all. America’s environmental permitting system and other regulations make...

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...

EPA Asks Court To Resume Stalled Suit Over Biden-Era PFAS SDWA Rule

The Trump EPA is pressing the D.C. Circuit to resume what is expected to be complex litigation challenging the Biden-era rule setting PFAS limits in drinking water, asking the court to direct parties in the consolidated case to submit by Aug. 1 proposals for a schedule and format to complete briefing in the case. “The parties are continuing to confer regarding a proposed format and schedule for completion of briefing in these consolidated cases, including an additional filing to be...

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...

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...

EPA sends Delaware River water standards to OMB for review

EPA is sending draft final water quality standards (WQS) to protect aquatic life for nearly 40 miles of the multi-state Delaware River watershed to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for interagency review, though the Biden EPA had proposed a consent decree to finalize the standards by the end of June. EPA sent the final standards to OMB for review on July 14, following an announcement from the agency in April that it would finalize a rule...

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...

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...

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...

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...

House GOP Taps Rep. Palmer, LCRI Critic, To Lead Key Environment Panel

House Republicans have named Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL), a strong critic of the Biden EPA’s rule requiring replacement of lead service lines, to lead the Energy and Commerce subcommittee that oversees the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and several other major environmental laws. Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY), chairman of the full committee, July 3 announced Palmer’s appointment to lead the environment subcommittee following a leadership shuffle due to Rep. Buddy Carter’s (R-GA) resignation from another subcommittee chairmanship. Carter had chaired...

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