EPA Archives

Feb 5, 2020

EPA Adds 160 PFAS for Toxics Release Reporting

One hundred sixty (160) polyfluoroalkyls (“PFAS”) have been added to the list of chemicals requiring reporting under the Toxics Release Inventory (“TRI”) by the EPA. EPA gave official notice on December 31 to industry reporters that they must begin tracking and collecting data on PFAS starting on January 1, 2020. Reporting for those chemicals now on the list will be due to the EPA by July 1, 2021. The requirement mandating immediate additions to the TRI comes even as the EPA is continuing with its advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking released last December announcing possible PFAS additions to the TRI. … Read more

Jan 29, 2020

EPA Announces Plans to Revoke Obama Waters of the United States Rule

The EPA is dramatically reducing the amount of U.S. waterways that receive federal protection under the Clean Water Act (“Act”). The biggest change is a controversial move to rollback federal limits on pollution in wetlands and smaller waterways that were introduced less than five years ago by the Obama administration. Under the revised rule, bodies of water which form only after rainfall or only flow part of the year, are not subject to federal control. This exception also applies to waste treatment systems, groundwater, prior converted cropland and farm watering ponds. In announcing the new rule, EPA administration Andrew Wheeler… Read more

Jan 15, 2020

Coal Ash Permit Rule to Target “High Hazard” Sites

The EPA has proposed a rule that would require only “high hazard” coal ash disposal sites to seek permits immediately under its Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (“RCRA”) rule establishing a nationwide permit program for disposal facilities. Other, less high priority sites will have permitting requirements deferred to an unspecified point in the future. The EPA’s program will apply in all states other than those authorized to administer their own programs. So far, only two states have received approval from the EPA to administer the programs – Oklahoma and Georgia. Under the nationwide rule, there will be three types of… Read more

Sep 18, 2019

EPA Repeals 2015 Clean Water Rule

On September 12, 2019, the EPA signed a final rule repealing the Obama-era 2015 Clean Water Rule, temporarily reinstating the pre-2015 regulatory framework for determining which bodies of water are considered “Waters of the United States” qualifying for federal anti-pollution protections under the Clean Water Act. The pre-2015 regulations are currently in place in more than half the states, due to litigation over the Obama era rule. According to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, the Trump administration is working on a replacement WOTUS rule, which is expected to take effect next year. Both the repeal and the anticipated new rule are… Read more

Aug 7, 2019

Environmental Groups Challenge EPA’s New Lead Standard Rule

On July 9, the U.S. EPA issued its “review of the dust lead hazard standards and the definition of lead-based paint” under which the EPA left largely intact, the existing standards and definitions. The Sierra Club has petitioned the 9th Circuit to review the new standards for “dust lead,” which include a decision by the EPA not to change the definition of lead-based paint. The standards are used to determine whether lead hazards exist in homes, childcare facilities and surrounding soil. In the case, A Community Voice v. EPA, the petitioner’s allege that the new standard does not take into… Read more

Jul 24, 2019

EPA Expected to Release Proposal to Modify New Source Review

The EPA is expected to release a proposed rule or policy for public comment regarding changes to the Clean Air Act’s pollution permitting program known as New Source Review. On July 17, the White House Office of Management and Budget completed its review of the proposed rule (RIN:2060-AT89), which is typically the final step before EPA releases a proposal. Under the current permitting program, power plants, refineries, and other large industrial sites must implement updated pollution controls in the event a new facility is built or an existing one is amended in a way that increases emissions. Under the proposed… Read more

Jul 17, 2019

EPA Announces Six National Compliance Initiatives for 2020-2023

In June 2019, the U.S. EPA’s Office of Enforcement & Compliance Assurance announced that it has selected six National Compliance Initiatives (“NCIs”) for fiscal years 2020 through 2023. The six priorities are (1) reducing excess air emissions of harmful pollutants from stationary sources; (2) reducing toxic air emissions from hazardous waste facilities; (3) reducing risks of accidental releases at industrial chemical facilities; (4) stopping the manufacture, sale, and installation of aftermarket defeat devices for emission controls on vehicles and engines; (5) reducing “significant noncompliance” with wastewater discharge permits; and (6) reducing noncompliance with drinking water standards at community water systems…. Read more

Jul 10, 2019

EPA Lowers Dust-Lead Hazard Levels in Advance of Court Ordered Deadline

On June 21 the EPA released updated dust-lead hazard standards which reduce the acceptable levels from 40 μg per square foot to 10 μg per square foot for floors, and from 250 μg per square foot to 100 μg per square foot for window sills. The standards apply to most pre-1978 housing and child-occupied facilities, such as daycare centers and kindergarten classrooms. The EPA was ordered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to revise their standards by June 2019 after several environmental organizations sued the agency in 2016 for failing to update the standards. The revised… Read more

Jun 26, 2019

U.S. EPA Not to Impose Stricter Ozone Controls on Upwind States

The U.S. EPA determined in December 2018 that it would not impose additional pollution control requirements on power plants in 20 upwind states whose emissions allegedly cause ozone nonattainment in downwind states in the northeast. Six eastern states led by New York are suing the EPA arguing it should have required stricter controls from upwind states to stop nitrogen ozides from blowing across state lines and preventing New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey from meeting federal air quality limits for ozone causing pollutants. The EPA has countered that additional pollution controls on the upwind states would achieve… Read more

Jun 12, 2019

U.S. Supreme Court to Address Important CERCLA Issue

On June 10, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would review a Montana Supreme Court decision that has important implications for cleanup of sites under the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation & Liability Act (CERCLA). In Atlantic Richfield Co. v. Gregory A. Christian, et al., Atlantic Richfield Co. (Arco) is seeking reversal of a Montana Supreme Court decision that allows private residents to sue Arco for cleanup costs and “restoration damages” of EPA-approved remediation that Arco is performing on the residents’ properties under CERCLA. The cleanup relates to the Anaconda Smelter Superfund site. Arco has spent decades and… Read more