Category: Special Topics in Environmental Management

Impact of WPS Not Being Measured by EPA

According to a recent report by EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), the Agency has not collected information on occurrences of agricultural worker exposure to dangerous pesticides and, therefore, cannot gauge the effect of its regulations to protect workers from those exposures. The OIG offered this assessment in the context of EPA’s 2015 revision of […]

Aquifer Exemptions Explained

Since the early 1980s, the EPA has permitted aquifer exemptions under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). An aquifer is an area of underground rock that contains or can transmit groundwater. Underground Injection Control (UIC) regulations the EPA has developed allow the Agency to separate certain aquifers from drinking water requirements provided the aquifers do […]

Pebble Mine Impact Assessment Begins

Despite an absence of support from the EPA, the proposed open-pit Pebble Mine Project in Southwest Alaska refuses to die. In the latest major action, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) announced that it will prepare a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) based on an application for a Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 404 (dredge […]