Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
For the first time since it issued its Water Quality Trading Policy (Policy) in 2003, the EPA appears to be taking consequential steps to encourage broader use of a practice that seems highly attractive at first glance but that has been constrained because of how the Policy was written and how stakeholders have interpreted it.
Since President Donald Trump occupied the White House, the EPA has been methodically revising its approach to enforcement. One important policy change occurred in summer 2018 when the Agency’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) announced that the National Enforcement Initiatives (NEI) program, the OECA’s triannual prioritization of the country’s top noncompliance problems, would […]
The EPA is proposing minor amendments to its National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for the hydrochloric acid (HCl) production source category. Required under Section 112 of the Clean Air Act, the Agency’s residual risk and technology review (RTR) would find, first, that the 2003 NESHAP for the source category is protective of […]
Two types of jurisdiction were central to a case in which two plaintiff companies deposited hazardous waste generated in Colorado into industrial wells in Illinois. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) found that the injections were conducted without the required Class I permit and brought charges against the companies before the Illinois Pollution Control Board […]
Even with more than 4 decades of experience in government and industry, William Barr, President Donald Trump’s choice to be the nation’s next attorney general (AG), does not have much of a public record on environmental law and regulation.
The results of the November 2018 midterm elections could have an impact on environmental policy and enforcement. Less noticed than the takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives by the Democrats, but also significant, were victories by Democrats in four state attorney general (AG) contests. Nationwide, the voting shifted the balance in favor of Democrats, […]
Following a 14-month performance audit of the EPA’s biosolids program, the EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) found what it believes to be significant gaps in the Agency’s implementation of its statutory obligation to protect human health and the environment. The major weakness identified by the OIG relates to the EPA’s regulation of pollutants in […]
In its proposed replacement definition of Waters of the United States (WOTUS), the EPA emphasized that one of its goals was to “strike a balance between Federal and State waters and carry out Congress’ overall objective [in the Clean Water Act (CWA)] to restore and maintain the integrity of the nation’s waters in a manner […]
The federal government’s policy on climate change, the EPA’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) and the Agency’s Clean Energy (ACE) proposal, its proposed CPP replacement; the EPA’s CO2 emissions and energy-efficiency standards for cars; the partial shutdown of the federal government; the EPA’s renewable fuel standard (RFS) and E-15; its newly proposed definition of the Waters […]
In a case centering on the EPA’s final rule for cooling water intake structures (CWIS) (August 15, 2014, Federal Register (FR)), a panel of judges with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit found that two federal agencies with whom the EPA consulted were not entitled to deny the release of certain documents […]