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The United States system of providing clean drinking water to all Americans, long viewed as one of the nation’s (and the world’s) premier environmental achievements, has been springing significant leaks over more than a decade. In its new Drinking Water Action Plan, which the EPA describes as a “national call to action,” the Agency sums […]
In a final rule, the EPA has added a subsurface intrusion component to the hazard ranking system (HRS) the Agency uses when considering whether to add sites to the Superfund’s National Priorities List (NPL). Until this action, the HRS, which was promulgated in 1990, did not consider the threat posed by subsurface intrusion when evaluating […]
In a final rule revision, the EPA has provided petroleum and natural gas facilities (Part 98, Subpart W) subject to the Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) with a burden-reduction option for detecting GHG leaks from equipment. The amendment would allow Subpart W reporters to use monitoring methods for detecting leaks from oil and gas […]
President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team indicated that E. Scott Pruitt, a Republican and the two-term attorney general (AG) of Oklahoma is Trump’s choice to serve as administrator of the EPA. As AG, Pruitt has fought relentlessly against what he perceives to be federal overreach into the rights of the states and has continually expressed the […]
The Department of the Interior (DOI) and DOI’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) jointly announced the proposed final plan for offshore oil and gas (O&G) leases for 2017–2022. According to the BOEM, the proposed final plan makes available areas containing approximately 70 percent of the economically recoverable resources in the U.S. outer continental shelf […]
Q. Will the 2017 federal construction general stormwater permit change my current requirements?
More than 300 companies that identify themselves as members of the “business and investor community of the United States” sent a brief statement to President-elect Donald Trump, affirming their continued support of U.S. participation in the Paris Climate Change Agreement (Paris Agreement) and other government and private sector measures to address climate change.
In a notice and as required by the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), the EPA has issued its fourth contaminant candidate list (CCL 4). CCLs comprise contaminants that are not subject to any proposed or promulgated federal drinking water standards, are known or anticipated to occur in public water systems (PWSs), and may require regulation […]
Q. How do I find out if the EPA or the State is the regulatory authority for controlling stormwater runoff at my construction site?
On November 28, 2016, the U.S. EPA published in the Federal Register (FR) the Hazardous Waste Generator Improvements Rule (Final Rule). Proposed in September 2015, the Final Rule overhauls and updates the decades-old EPA regulations for hazardous waste generators and, in the EPA’s opinion, makes the generator rules easier to understand, facilitates better compliance, and […]