Tag: Water Quality

EPA Issues 2022–2032 Vision for Water Quality

Radhika Fox, the EPA’s assistant administrator for water, issued the memo 2022–2032 Vision for the Clean Water Act Section 303(d) Program to the EPA regional administrators in September. Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act (CWA) authorizes the EPA to assist states, territories, and authorized tribes in listing impaired waters and developing total maximum daily […]

A Closer Look at Proposed Changes to the 401 CWA Water Quality Certification Rule

In June 2022, the EPA issued a proposed rule to update regulatory requirements under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act (CWA). The Trump administration issued the first changes to these rules in 50 years, known as the 2020 Rule. Many felt the 2020 Rule removed long-standing state and tribal rights to block federal water […]

DuPont Water Contamination Case Dismissed

On January 4, 2022, U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman of the Southern District of New York dismissed claims against Du Pont de Nemours and Co and its codefendants seeking payment for upgrades to five water treatment plants managed by Suez Water New York Inc. The suit, Suez Water New York v. Dupont, Corteva, Inc, and […]

Impaired Waters and TMDL Compliance

The EPA announced it transmitted the final 2020 Missouri Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 303 (d) List of Impaired Waters to the state on September 13, 2021. CWA Section 303(d) requires states to submit their lists of impaired waters to the EPA for approval every two years. “The 303(d) List is an important water quality […]

Navajo Nation Sees Relief in Lawsuit Over Navigable Waters Definition

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 […]

Can I Complete an Antidegration Analysis Myself?

Q. If I want to switch chemicals in my water treatment process, can I complete an antidegradation analysis myself and all in one application? A. Yes. You can do the antidegradation analysis yourself, so long as all methods of sample collection, preservation, and analysis are conducted using approved methods and tested by a certified laboratory. […]

Build a Rain Garden into Your SWPPP (con’t)

Advisor: What is the average life span of a properly maintained rain garden? RT: Don’t know yet. They haven’t been used long enough in this manner to know when they are done. Research indicates that they do better as they get older. As the biota [Advisor Note:  animal and plants of a particular region] in […]

Build a Rain Garden into Your Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan

The development and implementation of the BMP is what ultimately decides the effectiveness of an SWPPP. In managing stormwater, BMPs can be broken down into two types: structural BMPs and nonstructural BMPs. Today, we will focus on structural BMPs (which as you can imagine are physical structures) in the form of rain gardens. EcoGro, based […]

Highlights from EPA’s Water Technology Innovation Blueprints

For Americans, clean water that is available in almost unlimited quantities any time of the day or night is something we have grown to expect as normal. But there are many factors changing our water landscape and the EPA is acting now to define present and future water use, problems to address and how to […]