By Tim Parker
Responsible parties all want clean water and to abide by the rules that secure it, but what if the rules do more harm than good? With a recent Supreme Court decision on wastewater discharges and a change of presidential administrations as the backdrop, this op-ed from the National Ground Water Association addresses the conundrum.
Last year, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) issued its ruling in the case Maui County v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund. The case centered on the question of whether pollutants that originate from a point source can be accurately traced to reach (navigable) surface water when transported through groundwater. In a 6-3 decision, SCOTUS ruled that, yes, point discharges should require a permit if they are considered a “functional equivalent of a direct discharge.” The court’s decision ultimately moved the case back down to the lower courts and mandated the U.S. EPA to create guidance on applying the new standard.
Groups Seeking to Expand Reach of Clean Water Act Thursday, March 4, 2021
In April 2020, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in
County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund et al., 140 S. Ct. 1462 (2000), vacating the Ninth Circuit’s decision. The appeals court had affirmed a district court’s finding of Clean Water Act (“CWA”) liability for the County’s alleged failure to obtain a discharge permit for subsurface releases of pollutants into groundwater that conveys pollutants to navigable waters. In vacating the judgment below, the Supreme Court rejected the Ninth Circuit’s “fairly traceable” test and set forth a new standard for determining when a source needs an NPDES permit: “the statute requires a permit when there is a direct discharge from a point source into navigable waters or when there is the
TSCA/FIFRA/TRI
“Environmental Justice: Operationalizing TSCA to Fulfill Its Destiny,” By Lynn L. Bergeson For The American College Of Environmental Lawyers (ACOEL) Blog: The Biden Administration has embraced environmental justice with unprecedented gusto. In its July 2020 Plan to Secure Environmental Justice and Equitable Economic Opportunity, the Biden Administration sets out in broad terms how it intends to use an “All-of-Government” approach to “rooting out systemic racism in our laws, policies, institutions, and hearts.” Read the full article online.
EPA Issues Final Compliance Guide Addressing Surface Coatings Under PFAS SNUR: On January 19, 2021, EPA announced the availability of a final compliance guide that outlines which imported articles are covered by EPA’s July 2020 final significant new use rule (SNUR) that prohibits companies from manufacturing, importing, processing, or using certain long-chain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) without prior EP
Hoola One: the beach microplastic vacuum cleaner surfertoday.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from surfertoday.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
Biden-Harris Administration Freezes Rules Pending Review
On January 20, 2021, Ronald A. Klain, Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff, issued a memorandum regarding “Regulatory Freeze Pending Review.” 86 Fed. Reg. 7424. For rules that have not yet taken effect, the memorandum directs the heads of executive departments and agencies to consider postponing the rules’ effective dates for 60 days from the date of the memorandum for the purpose of reviewing any questions of fact, law, and policy the rules may raise. For postponed rules, during the 60-day period, the memorandum asks agencies to consider opening a 30-day comment period to allow interested parties to provide comments about issues of fact, law, and policy raised by those rules, and consider pending petitions for reconsideration involving such rules. Where necessary to continue to review these questions of fact, law, and policy, agencies should consider further delaying, o