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In its proposed amendments to the federal Lead and Copper Rule (LCR), the EPA estimates that, nationwide, there are between 6.3 million and 9.3 million homes that receive drinking water through lead service lines (LSLs). (Uncertainty about the actual number of LSLs underlies the proposed requirement that public water systems (PWSs) inventory the LSLs in […]
The EPA’s new proposal to reduce childhood exposure to lead in drinking water seeks to strike a balance between the need for more protection and the stubborn complexity of the risk. Under the proposal, public water systems (PWSs) would be subject to six new general requirements (which include many more specific requirements), including taking an […]
President Donald Trump backed up the administration’s priority environmental commitment to clean drinking water by signing into law the Water Infrastructure Funding Transfer Act (S. 1689).
The EPA has released a draft strategy to evaluate the effectiveness of hospital-level antimicrobial disinfectants after they have been registered. The strategy describes a risk-based approach intended to help the Agency prioritize and select hospital-level disinfectants and label claims for testing.
Appeals from the petroleum industry notwithstanding, the EPA recently announced that it will continue to take action to “significantly increase the 2020 U.S. biofuel mandate.” One promised action is rulemaking to streamline labeling and “remove other barriers” to the sale of E15, a fuel comprising 85 percent (%) conventional gasoline and 15% ethanol.
In a ruling that helps downwind states with areas in nonattainment with the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit declined to vacate the EPA’s 2016 rule to update its Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR). However, the court did remand one […]
The environmental ill will between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the nation’s most populous state, California, has spilled over from the Clean Air Act (CAA) to the Clean Water Act (CWA) and Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).
In 2017, industrial activity accounted for 22% of U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, third behind transportation (29%) and electricity (28%). When adding indirect emissions from the off-site generation of electricity needed to power industrial facilities, the share increases to 29.7%.
In February 2019, the EPA’s assistant administrator for water issued a memo updating the Agency’s water quality trading policy “to promote market-based mechanisms.” The memo includes six principles intended to clarify aspects of the federal water quality trading program, provide tools and incentives to states and local governments to implement trading programs, and promote increased […]
With the exception of a waiver denial in 2007—which was later reversed—the EPA has granted every request California has made since the first request was granted in 1968 to allow the state to set its own vehicle emissions standards. That record is now ended with the EPA’s final rule that withdraws its January 2013 waiver […]