PFAS in Focus: Wastewater Utility Perspectives From Jay Hoskins, Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District - Reflections on Water Podcast
Drinking Water on Tap: Money, Morality, and More with Tracy Mehan from the American Water Works Association - Reflections on Water Podcast
On January 15, 2025, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a Draft “Sewage Sludge Risk Assessment for Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) and Perfluorooctane Sulfonic Acid (PFOS)” for public comment. EPA...more
On March 4, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5-4 opinion in City and County of San Francisco v. Environmental Protection Agency, holding that “end-result” requirements routinely imposed by the EPA in NPDES permits issued...more
California Fish and Game Code Section 5937 has long been a subject of scholarly debate with uncertainty in its application. In a published opinion filed on April 2, 2025, California’s Court of Appeal for the Fifth Appellate...more
The Supreme Court of the United States’ recent Clean Water Act decision in City of San Francisco v. EPA has sent shockwaves through the environmental community by prohibiting EPA and state agencies’ common practice of...more
On April 2, 2025, California’s Fifth Appellate District issued a decision in Bring Back the Kern v. City of Bakersfield (April 2, 2025, F087487) (2025 WL 98443). The Court held the “self-executing” reasonableness requirement...more
James McEvoy (“McEvoy”) filed an April 2nd Complaint in the Circuit Court of Carroll County, Arkansas against Eureka Springs, Arkansas alleging damages due to a sanitary sewer overflow (“SSO”). See Case No. 08WCV-25-39....more
On April 5, 2025, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin notice of a long-awaited proposed rulemaking that would establish new requirements for reporting spills,...more
On April 2, 2025, the Court of Appeal for California’s Fifth Appellate District issued its decision in Bring Back the Kern v. City of Bakersfield, 2025 S.O.S. 909. That case held that courts must apply the reasonableness...more
As part of a continued effort to expedite rebuilding after Los Angeles' devastating firestorms, Governor Gavin Newsom this week suspended California environmental laws for utility providers working to reinstall key...more
H2Ozarks announced that the public comment period has been extended through April 22nd for the Upper White River Watershed Management Plan (“Plan”). The organization states that it is seeking community feedback to “ensure...more
A recent lawsuit against Synagro Technologies, Inc. raises important questions about the role of biosolids in PFAS contamination and the legal responsibilities of manufacturers. The case, Farmer v. Synagro Tech., Inc., No....more
Senate Bill 556 has been introduced which would amend Arkansas Code Title 8, Chapter 3, Subchapter 1 to add an additional Section titled: 8-3-104. Watershed Discharge Prohibition...more
The Trump administration is offering coal-fired power plants and other industrial facilities an opportunity to obtain exemptions from Clean Air Act (CAA) requirements designed to reduce emissions of chemicals such as mercury,...more
In a landmark decision, a North Dakota jury has ordered Greenpeace to pay over $660 million in damages to Energy Transfer, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). This verdict stems from Greenpeace’s involvement...more
The allegations of a plaintiff’s complaint do not control when evaluating removal under the federal officer removal statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1442(a)(1), and instead the court must credit the defendant’s theory of the case when...more
Mr. David A. Ludder Transmitted a February 7th document to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) styled: Notice of Intent to Sue Administrator under Clean Water Act §505(a)2,33U.S.C. §1365 (a)2....more
In its recent decision in San Francisco v. EPA, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Ninth Circuit interpretation of the Clean Water Act (“CWA”), the second case in just two years where the Court has disagreed with the EPA’s...more
The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut issued a March 4th press release stating that National Water Main Cleaning Company (“NWMCC”) was sentenced by the United States District Court for the...more
When the Supreme Court issued its decision in City & County of San Francisco v. EPA on March 4, 2025, it may have saved San Francisco $10 billion dollars in penalties sought by the United States Environmental Protection...more
On March 4, 2025, the United States Supreme Court issued its ruling in City and County of San Francisco v. Environmental Protection Agency, limiting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s permitting authority under...more
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, in San Francisco v. EPA, held in a 5-4 decision that the EPA cannot enforce requirements in wastewater permits that “do not spell out what a permittee must do or refrain from doing.” San...more
With its opinion in San Francisco v. EPA, the U.S. Supreme Court has again acted to "right" the implementation of the federal Clean Water Act by overturning a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit interpretation of the...more
On March 3, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court decided City and County of San Francisco, California v. Environmental Protection Agency, No. 23-753, holding that Section 1311(b)(1)(A) of the Clean Water Act does not authorize the...more
On March 4, 2025 the Supreme Court overturned the 9th Circuit to rule in favor of the City of San Francisco in a landmark Clean Water Act case. The EPA authorizes states to issue National Pollutant Discharge Elimination...more
As reported in our September 30, 2024, blog item, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in September 2024 that the plaintiffs established by a preponderance of the evidence that the levels of...more