Focus

EPA to revoke California’s authority to set gas mileage standards

ABC News – September 6

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving forward with a proposal to revoke part of California's authority to set its own automobile gas mileage standards in an effort to help the administration set a single, less rigorous mileage standard enforceable nationwide, a government official said Thursday. The EPA's move targets California's half-century-old exemption under the Clean Air Act to set its own, tough tailpipe emission standards. That waiver has allowed California, the state with the highest population and by far the biggest economy, to steer the rest of the nation toward reducing car and truck emissions that pollute the air and alter the climate. About a dozen states have opted to follow California's pollution and mileage standards. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra intends to challenge any revocation of the waiver by EPA.

News

Jury awards Atwater $63 million in groundwater pollution suit against Shell Oil Company

Merced Sun-Star – August 30

A Merced County Superior Court jury has ordered Shell Oil Company to pay the City of Atwater $53 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages in a groundwater pollution suit involving the highly toxic chemical 1,2,3-Trichloropropane (TCP). TCP is a chemical that, among other uses, for years was added to fumigants, called nematicides, which farmers added to soil to kill tiny worms called nematodes. According to the city, Shell marketed a nematicide in the San Joaquin Valley for decades, but did not reveal it contained TCP. City officials say Shell’s nematicide was widely applied to agricultural lands around Atwater, which led to the city’s water being contaminated.

PFAS found in drinking water throughout Southern California

The Orange County Register – August 30

The wells of nearly two dozen Southern California water agencies have reportable levels of PFAS, a group of chemical compounds linked to various health issues, including cancer, liver and kidney damage, and thyroid disease. Seven of those agencies have shut down wells in the past year because of the presence of PFAS and two more plan closures. California began ordering testing for the chemicals this year, and a state law requiring that customers be notified about the presence of those chemicals will go into effect in 2020. Water agencies have been ordered by the state to test for PFOA and PFOS, particularly in wells located near landfills, airports, and military bases, and downstream of wastewater plants. Growing concern about PFAS led to the state to announce Aug. 23 that it was drastically lowering its required reporting threshold, making it likely that more water agencies will be reporting the presence of PFAS in upcoming months.

San Onofre owners, contractor, and regulators face new lawsuit over fuel storage plan

The San Diego Union-Tribune – August 30

An advocacy group is asking a federal judge to halt the on-site transfer of spent nuclear fuel at San Onofre until a full hearing on the project can be convened. The lawsuit, filed last Friday in the U.S. District Court in San Diego by the nonprofit Public Watchdogs, seeks a temporary restraining order, alleging that the storage plan is a public nuisance and violates strict product liability rules, and further alleges that the fuel storage canisters are defective, a claim that plant officials have denied. Named in the lawsuit are the owners of the plant, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric; Holtec International, which designed and built the storage canisters now being loaded with radioactive waste; and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency with regulatory authority over the plant. Plant officials say the goals of the lawsuit are counter to the expressed interest of the communities adjacent to the San Onofre nuclear plant by potentially stranding spent fuel on site, even when options for transport and off-site storage or disposal become available.