In a ruling July 15, U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway ordered Maui County to obtain a permit under the Clean Water Act (CWA) consistent with the analysis established by the Supreme Court’s April 2020 ruling that injection wells could fall under the CWA. The District Court decision marks a first-time application of the Supreme Court’s landmark test on when pollutants that travel through the groundwater require a permit. The Court reasoned that the discharge from the county’s injection wells into the groundwater, and ultimately into the ocean, is the functional equivalent of a direct discharge such that it triggers… Read more

On June 28, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) announced an interim final rule that would give agencies until September 14, 2023, to propose revisions to their National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations.  The CEQ is targeting Trump Era changes which limited the scope of agency permit reviews for large projects, such as highways and bridges, to avoid consideration of cumulative impacts.  Cumulative impact analysis is commonly understood to refer to climate change when considering permit applications.  CEQ personnel are currently reviewing and analyzing the Trump Era changes for consistency with Biden’s January 25 executive order telling agencies to… Read more

On Tuesday, June 15, the EPA pushed back the effective date of the Trump-Era Lead and Copper Rule after receiving public feedback supporting a delay for the regulation.  The Trump‑Era Rule cut the percentage of a public water system’s lead pipes that need to be replaced annually from 7% down to 3%.  Environmental groups sued the EPA in January to block the regulation claiming that the Rule exposed more children to lead poisoning.  The Biden Administration EPA is reviewing and is expected to revise the Rule which is now set to take effect on December 16, rather than its original… Read more

The EPA has announced that it intends to reconsider Trump-Era assumptions on worker’s use of personal protective equipment (PPE) when conducting TSCA chemical safety evaluations.  Under the Trump-Era policy, the EPA assumed workers will follow workplace-safety mandates to wear PPE when gaging chemical exposure risk pursuant to TSCA mandated chemical assessments.  The EPA is now considering whether this assumption is reasonable, and whether the TSCA safety evaluations should consider that PPE guidelines and recommendations may not always be followed.  Critics of the more stringent approach being considered by the EPA have argued that if the EPA reaches its own conclusions… Read more