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.

State Regulators Criticize Lack Of Guidance From EPA On PFAS Actions

NEW YORK -- State PFAS regulators are raising concerns about the lack of guidance and information they have received from the Trump administration on PFAS regulations, such as recent changes made to the Biden-era drinking water rule, amid continuing efforts to tackle contamination at the state level despite significant costs. “I think all of the states right now are having some challenges interacting [with EPA],” Joaquin Esquivel, board chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board, said during a...

Citizens Urge High Court To Reject Exxon Bid To Review Standing Suit

A Texas environmental group is urging that the Supreme Court reject ExxonMobil’s petition to review a landmark citizen suit case as a vehicle to reverse the years-old Laidlaw precedent on standing, arguing the fractured lower court ruling is a “terrible vehicle” for review and that the absence of circuit conflict means review is unnecessary. In a June 3 reply brief filed in ExxonMobil Corp. v. Environment Texas Citizen Lobby, et al. , environmentalists say the high court should reject...

EPA Faces Looming Deadlines To Make Key Decisions On Major PFAS Rules

EPA has outlined general policy plans for addressing PFAS contamination but it remains ambiguous on the details of just how far it will go in regulating the chemicals and how it may address competing interests, sources say, though the agency has little time to make some key decisions as it faces looming court deadlines. “You can only regulate and posture by press release for so long,” one industry attorney says, referring to press releases issued by EPA in recent weeks...

Doubting Justification, Industry Urges EPA To Cut PFAS Monitoring In MSGP

PFAS manufacturers and other groups are urging the Trump EPA to drop first-time PFAS monitoring requirements from the Biden administration’s proposed multi-sector general permit (MSGP), arguing that EPA fails to justify why such extensive and costly stormwater monitoring is necessary for 23 of 30 sectors subject to the permit’s requirements. In recent comments, several groups urged EPA to withdraw and repropose the draft permit without the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) monitoring requirements the plan currently contains. “The Agency has...

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...

FERC Cites D.C. Circuit Decision As Affirming Position In CWA 401 Suit

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is touting a D.C. Circuit ruling from earlier this month that upheld its determination that Vermont did not waive its Clean Water Act (CWA) section 401 authority when an applicant repeatedly withdrew and resubmitted its request, arguing that decision supports its position in separate litigation in which a local agency argues FERC wrongly concluded California also did not waive its authority. FERC cited the case in a May 28 notice of supplemental authorities to...

SG Urges High Court To Reverse CWA Citizen Suit Ruling On State Limits

Solicitor General (SG) D. John Sauer is urging the Supreme Court to reverse an appellate court ruling that allowed plaintiffs to use the Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen suit provisions to enforce state mandates that are “greater in scope” than federal requirements, saying it is a “suitable vehicle” for resolving a circuit split on the issue. Sauer filed a May 27 amicus brief on behalf of the United States in Port of Tacoma, et al., v. Puget Soundkeeper Alliance...

Corps declines to appeal NWP 56 vacatur

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is declining to appeal a federal district court ruling setting aside as unlawful the agency’s approval of a Clean Water Act (CWA) general permit that would authorize dredge-and fill activities for construction of marine-based industrial aquaculture structures. The federal government last week declined to appeal a March ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in the suit Don’t Cage Our Oceans, et al., v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,...

Florida Cites 5th Circuit Ruling In Bid To Curb CBD’s Standing In 404 Suit

Florida is citing a 5th Circuit ruling finding that environmental justice (EJ) groups lack standing to challenge EPA’s rule granting Louisiana’s Class VI carbon storage well permit program in an effort to underscore its claims that environmentalists lack standing to challenge the agency’s approval of its section 404 dredge-and-fill permit program. Florida filed a May 23 letter advising of additional authorities to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in the suit Center for Biological Diversity...

EPA Eyes Compliance Waivers From SDWA PFAS Rule But Some See Limits

EPA is examining section 1416 of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), a rarely used section of the law, to provide utilities with short-term waivers from its scaled-back PFAS standards, though sources say the authority may not be broadly applicable to bigger utilities and is rarely used by states because it is burdensome. “This may be less than it is cracked up to be,” says one water utility source. At issue are provisions in EPA’s May 14 announcement scaling back...

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...

EPA Seeks To Narrow States’ CWA 401 Authority To ‘Water Quality’ Impacts

EPA is narrowing states’ and tribes’ reach when certifying federal decisions under Clean Water Act (CWA) section 401, requiring that any conditions they attach to their approvals address potential noncompliance with water quality requirements rather than allow them to focus broadly on the underlying “activity” as the Biden-era rule allows. “The purpose of this document is to reiterate the EPA’s longstanding position that states and Tribes must utilize CWA Section 401 only for its statutory purpose -- to protect water...

Lawmakers, Analysts Attack Newsom Plan To Speed Water Tunnel Approvals

California lawmakers and legislative analysts are attacking a new budget proposal by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) to speed permitting and other approvals for the administration’s proposed tunnel to transport water from the San Francisco Bay-Delta to southern California, charging it tramples on environmental protection rules, spending limits and other laws. “I can’t think of any other time where you’ve had streamlining of [the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)] like this where every single community -- every county, every city --...

Capito Doubts Zeldin’s Defense For Planned FY26 Cuts To SRF Programs

Senate environment committee Chairman Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) is doubting EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s claims that the Trump administration is seeking to slash funding for the agency’s clean and drinking water state revolving fund (SRF) programs in fiscal year 2026 due to lawmakers’ earmarking of such funds for local projects. During a May 21 hearing on EPA’s FY26 budget request before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), Capito, who also serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, charged that...

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...

EPA Faces Likely Legal Hurdles Over Efforts To Overhaul SDWA PFAS Rule

EPA faces likely legal hurdles over its plans to rescind and reconsider Biden-era drinking water limits for four PFAS and to extend by two years compliance mandates for the two remaining PFAS, though the agency and others are suggesting possible legal arguments the government may make to justify any rescission. Environmentalists and others are suggesting that any EPA effort to revise the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) rule may run up against legal hurdles such as the anti-backsliding provision and...

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