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Last month, the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) announced fiscal year (FY) 2022 enforcement and compliance accomplishments, which included an increase in inspections of more than 78% over FY 2021, particularly in overburdened environmental justice communities. “Taken together, OECA’s criminal, civil, and administrative enforcement cases reduced, treated or eliminated pollutants by 95 […]
On August 22, 2022, the EPA announced Smith Frozen Foods Inc. of Weston, Oregon, agreed to pay a $100,000 fine for Clean Air Act (CAA) violations. During a 2016 inspection, the EPA found the company failed to maintain and implement its required Risk Management Plan (RMP) when using and storing anhydrous ammonia, which is used […]
The EPA is serious about compliance, especially when it comes to home renovations containing lead-based paint. “Reducing childhood lead exposure and the associated health impacts is a top priority for EPA,” states an EPA news release. “That’s why EPA inspectors will be working actively in overburdened communities … to encourage greater compliance with the federal […]
Each year, the EPA publishes annual inflationary increases to the fine amounts for civil penalties assessed under its authority. Since 1996, federal agencies have been required to issue regulations adjusting for inflation the statutory civil monetary penalties that can be imposed under the laws administered by that agency. Adjustments to the penalty amounts are regulated […]
On September 17, 2021, the EPA proposed amendments to the National Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Emission Standards for Aerosol Coatings, which establish reactivity-based emissions standards for the aerosol coatings category under the Clean Air Act (CAA). “In this action, the EPA is proposing to update coating category product-weighted reactivity limits for aerosol coatings categories; add […]
Whistleblowers responsible for completing chemical risk assessments have come forward with allegations that their reports have been and continue to be “improperly altered to completely eliminate or minimize risk calculations,” according to a complaint filed by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) on behalf of four scientists who work in EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety […]
On July 1, 2021, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced that attorneys at Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP have been appointed as special assistant attorneys general to conduct an independent investigation into “allegations regarding alleged improper non-enforcement of air quality standards as alleged by certain Air Pollution Control Division staff at the Colorado Department of […]
New Mexico is known as the “Land of Enchantment,” but it is also a state without a lot of bodies of water. When the Trump administration changed the “navigable waters” definition to include only waters that flowed year-round, both New Mexico and Arizona were particularly hard hit, as the majority of their waterways don’t have […]
The EPA Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a June 14, 2021, report that says continued delays by the EPA on State Implementation Plan (SIP) actions “increase the risk that state or local air agencies are not implementing plans sufficient to achieve or maintain the [National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)]” under the Clean Air […]
In response to the EPA’s request for comments on the Risk Management Program (RMP) regulations and related goals, on June 16, 2021, former EPA Administrator and New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, retired generals Russel Honoré and Randy Manner, former EPA Official Robert Bostock, and former National Security Council and Senate Intelligence Committee staff member […]