Sam Hess at Inside EPA reports that the Army Corps of Engineers isn't going to begin issuing Jurisdictional Determinations until after the Environmental Protection Agency and the Corps publish yet another Waters of the United...more
Bloomberg is reporting that 3M and the two companies responsible for the liability of what used to be DuPont have agreed to pay $100 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the City of Rome, Georgia for the cost of engineering...more
6/2/2023
/ 3M Company ,
Drinking Water ,
DuPont ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Environmental Violations ,
Manufacturers ,
PFAS ,
Public Health ,
Punitive Damages ,
Toxic Chemicals ,
Toxic Exposure
Five Justices of our nation's highest court have now provided a definition of "Waters of the United States" that will be binding on the Executive and Judicial Branches at least until Congress says otherwise. As Justice...more
6/1/2023
/ Clean Water Act ,
Commerce Clause ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Federal Jurisdiction ,
Inland Waterways ,
Navigable Waters ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Sackett ,
Sackett v EPA ,
SCOTUS ,
US Army Corps of Engineers ,
Waters of the United States ,
Wetlands
So the Sacketts of Idaho are 2-0 in their visits to our nation's highest court and the jurisdictional reach of the Federal Clean Water Act is shorter than it has been for decades. The opinion of the majority has more in...more
A few months ago I told you about the United States Forest Service's decision to resolve a citizen suit accusing it of violating the Clean Water Act by obtaining a Federal permit and as many as 47 State permits authorizing it...more
Hundreds and hundreds of claims for personal injury and property damage associated with PFAS contamination have been accumulating in the courtroom of a Federal Judge in South Carolina. A little over four years ago the Federal...more
Three Judges of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals have joined Judges in North Dakota and Texas in concluding that EPA's most recent attempt to establish the jurisdictional reach of the Clean Water Act is unlikely to survive...more
Bloomberg Environment reports that a Georgia NGO has sued a textile manufacturer and the town in which the manufacturer is located over unpermitted discharges of the "forever chemicals" known collectively as PFAS into the...more
While we were all patiently waiting for the United States Supreme Court's opinion (or opinions) in Sackett v. EPA, Bloomberg Environment reports that EPA has another Clean Water Act surprise.
For those of you who have...more
EPA got a lot of press this week for its first ever "enforcement" action relating to the continuing discharge of the forever chemicals known as PFAS into the Ohio River in West Virginia. Many of you know that this part of the...more
Inside EPA reports that the Maine Department of Environmental Protection is having a hard time implementing a 2021 Maine law that would, between now and the end of 2029, ban the sale of any new products with “intentionally...more
Inside EPA's Climate Extra is reporting that Senators on both sides of the aisle might try to make it easier to construct all that renewable energy and other infrastructure it already decided to buy when it passed the...more
With the signatures of two Federal District Court Judges, one in Texas and one in North Dakota, EPA's eighth attempt to determine the jurisdictional reach of the Clean Water Act is now the law in only 24 of our not so United...more
Yesterday President Biden vetoed the Congressional Review Act resolution that would have repealed EPA's eighth attempt to determine the jurisdictional reach of the Clean Water Act. In 1972 Congress overrode President Nixon's...more
Federal District Court Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Commonwealth of Kentucky and various industry groups challenging EPA's eighth attempt to determine the jurisdictional reach of the...more
Inside EPA is reporting that the United States Forest Service is going to work with EPA to obtain National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit coverage under the Federal Clean Water Act authorizing it to...more
Sam Hess of Inside EPA points out that Judge Brown of Texas concluded that the United States Supreme Court's nearly forty year old precedent compelling the Judiciary to defer to Executive Branch interpretations of laws it is...more
Like I said at the beginning of the month, most of us have seen this sad movie before so it is no surprise that EPA's eighth attempt to define the reach of the Federal Clean Water Act will be the law in no more than 48 of the...more
EPA continues to make measurable progress toward the milestones it established in its 2021 PFAS road map. It has arranged for an assessment of the risks posed by these "forever chemicals" and concluded, based on those...more
Law360 is reporting that a Federal District Court Judge in South Carolina is allowing NGOs, including the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League, to continue their Clean Water Act citizen suit against the Army Corps of...more
EPA has now opposed the motions of the State of Kentucky and several industry groups to enjoin its eighth attempt to determine the jurisdictional reach of the Clean Water Act. Much of the content of that opposition is not...more
Massachusetts State Representative Kate Hogan seems to make a lot of sense when she says, about the continued widespread use of the "forever chemicals" known as PFAS, that "if we don't prevent it, all we're doing is...more
Sir Winston Churchill famously said "those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Of course he didn't have the nearly four decade long controversy over the reach of the Federal Clean Water Act in mind but...more
This week Sam Hess of Inside EPA asked me if I had an opinion as to why there were fewer lawsuits (so far) challenging EPA's eighth attempt to durably determine the reach of the Federal Clean Water Act than there were...more
This week three Judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that a District Court Judge exceeded his authority in vacating an EPA regulation without first determining that the regulation was unlawful.
The Trump...more