On January 24, 2022, the United States Supreme Court granted an appeal to reconsider the extent of federal Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction involving wetlands on a couple’s property in Idaho. The appellants (the Sacketts)...more
3/28/2022
/ Air Pollution ,
Clean Air Act ,
Clean Water Act ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Mercury ,
PFAS ,
Public Utility ,
Sackett ,
SCOTUS ,
Toxic Chemicals ,
Waters of the United States ,
Wetlands
On January 24, 2022, the United States Supreme Court granted an appeal to reconsider the extent of federal Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction involving wetlands on a couple’s property in Idaho. The appellants (the Sacketts)...more
Arguably, the Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) is one of our society’s most important numbers. The SCC is used in all climate decisions and will now be considered in all significant governmental decisions and federal actions. How...more
3/15/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Chesapeake Bay ,
Clean Water Act ,
Climate Change ,
Coastal Real Estate ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Final Rules ,
Hazardous Waste ,
New Guidance ,
Obama Administration ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
US Army Corps of Engineers
The Clean Water Act (CWA) provides various means of enforcement against violators of its permitting programs, including sanctions for those guilty of criminal negligence. The chief programs in this regard are the National...more
Federal environmental policies are likely to undergo significant changes at DOJ and EPA under the Biden administration, including alteration of many Trump administration enforcement policies. Since many of these existing...more
1/12/2021
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Air Pollution ,
Biden Administration ,
Clean Water Act ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Energy Sector ,
Enforcement ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Executive Orders ,
Regulatory Agenda
Two recent executive orders (“EOs”) issued by President Trump require additional efforts by federal agencies to facilitate regulatory reform and to expedite infrastructure projects, relying greatly on emergency and special...more
7/16/2020
/ CARES Act ,
CERCLA ,
Clean Water Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Economic Downturn ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Federal Funding ,
Financial Stimulus ,
Infrastructure ,
Investment ,
NESHAP ,
Public Projects ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Relief Measures ,
Trump Administration
In a recent special alert addressing Northern Plains Resource Council v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, we reported that the federal district court for Montana vacated the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) Nationwide Permit...more
As reported in a number of our newsletter articles over the past several years, both the Obama Administration, through its Clean Water Rule, and the Trump Administration have pursued major changes to the scope of...more
As we have reported in previous articles, controversy over whether the Clean Water Act (CWA) regulates discharges of pollutants that travel through groundwater into surface waters has led to significant litigation across the...more
5/8/2020
/ Appeals ,
Clean Water Act ,
Direct Discharge ,
Discharge of Pollutants ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Functional Equivalent ,
Groundwater ,
Hawaii Wildlife Fund v County of Maui ,
Navigable Waters ,
NPDES ,
Permits ,
Point Sources ,
Remand ,
SCOTUS ,
Vacated ,
Waters of the United States
An April 15, 2020 decision by the United States District Court for the District of Montana has held that Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP 12) issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps’) is unlawful. Nationwide permits...more
4/30/2020
/ Clean Water Act ,
Deregulation ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Inland Waterways ,
National Marine Fisheries Service ,
Navigable Waters ,
US Army Corps of Engineers ,
US Fish and Wildlife Service ,
Waters of the United States ,
Wetlands
The two-step regulatory process initiated in 2017 by EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (together, the “Agencies”) to revise the regulatory definition of “waters of the United States” (“WOTUS”) continues its methodical...more
1/14/2020
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Clean Water Act ,
Clean Water Rule ,
Commerce Clause ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Navigable Waters ,
Rapanos v US ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Substantial Nexus ,
Trump Administration ,
US Army Corps of Engineers ,
Waters of the United States
If your company is planning to buy commercial or industrial real estate, it’s probably your standard practice to have a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (“Phase I”) performed. When you do so, it’s important to ensure the...more
6/7/2019
/ Air Pollution ,
BFPP ,
Cap-and-Trade ,
Carbon Emissions ,
CERCLA ,
Chesapeake Bay ,
Clean Water Act ,
Environmental Impact Report (EIR) ,
Environmental Litigation ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Groundwater Management Plan ,
Hazardous Waste Pharmaceuticals Rule ,
NGOs ,
Pollution Control Board ,
Real Estate Development ,
State Funding ,
TMDL
EPA recently released a final regional office realignment plan in response to President Trump’s March 2017 Executive Order 13781. That order required EPA and other federal agencies to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and...more
12/20/2018
/ Agricultural Sector ,
Bureau of Land Management ,
CERCLA ,
Clean Air Act ,
Clean Water Act ,
Deregulation ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
EPCRA ,
Farm Animals ,
Government Reorganization ,
Groundwater Management Plan ,
Oil & Gas ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) ,
Utilities Sector
EPA has announced a new compliance policy that some will view as providing welcome relief to industry and others may view as providing unwarranted concessions. The subject line of the EPA memo announcing the new policy is...more
10/3/2018
/ Adjacent Property Owners ,
Clean Air Act ,
Clean Water Act ,
Clean Water Rule ,
Coal ,
Coal Ash ,
Discharge of Pollutants ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Hazardous Waste ,
New Guidance ,
RCRA ,
Sierra Club ,
Strategic Enforcement Plan ,
Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) ,
Waters of the United States
In the evolving Sierra Club v. Virginia Electric & Power Company case, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has just reversed a Virginia-based federal district court on the key issue of whether a coal ash...more
10/2/2018
/ Clean Water Act ,
Coal ,
Coal Ash ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Groundwater ,
Jurisdiction ,
Landfills ,
NPDES ,
Reversal ,
Sierra Club ,
Water Pollution
The saga of the federal Clean Water Act’s definition of “waters of the United States” (“WOTUS”) has taken more turns recently, including a significant setback for the Trump Administration’s efforts to transition away from the...more
10/2/2018
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Barack Obama ,
Clean Water Act ,
Clean Water Rule ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Property Owners ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Trump Administration ,
US Army Corps of Engineers ,
Waters of the United States ,
Wetlands
New Source Review (“NSR”) remains a focus of enforcement for EPA. Between last year and now, EPA finalized eight settlements with manufacturers and one with a utility, asserting NSR violations for allegedly not obtaining a...more
5/3/2018
/ Clean Air Act ,
Clean Water Act ,
Discharge of Pollutants ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Groundwater ,
Groundwater Management Plan ,
Landfills ,
Manufacturers ,
Methane ,
Mining ,
NPDES ,
POTWs
EPA recently announced that it is seeking comments on how to address one of the more vexing issues involving EPA’s jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act (“CWA”): whether discharged wastewater or stormwater that passes...more
A major skirmish in the long-running legal battle over the scope of protected waters under the federal Clean Water Act (“Act”) has just ended with the U.S. Supreme Court decision in National Association of Manufacturers v....more
2/14/2018
/ Clean Water Act ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Navigable Waters ,
NPDES ,
Oil Spills ,
Rapanos v US ,
SCOTUS ,
US Army Corps of Engineers ,
Waters of the United States ,
Wetlands
Facility owners and operators and property developers need to meet environmental permit or performance criteria, but they also face significant compliance and logistical challenges in just managing and reporting information...more
The Clean Power Plan (“CPP”), and its companion new source review rule, is the Obama Administration’s signature regulation on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Among other things, it requires states to put...more
5/17/2017
/ Agricultural Sector ,
Clean Power Plan ,
Clean Water Act ,
Climate Change ,
Environmental Liability ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Executive Orders ,
Groundwater ,
Hazardous Waste ,
NRDC ,
Presidential Memorandum ,
Trump Administration ,
Two For One Rule
It’s a bad day when you find out that your facility has been leaking wastewater, wastes, petroleum product or chemicals. But if the leak went into the soil and the groundwater first, rather than a nearby creek, are you liable...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently resurrected EPA’s embattled Water Transfers Rule (“WTR”) in a case particularly important to municipal water suppliers and others engaged in interbasin...more
In early June, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”) proposed to reissue its nationwide permits (“NWPs”) for certain wetland impacts. The proposed changes present some interesting issues and new opportunities for...more
CONGRESS FINDS THE FORMULA TO REFORM CHEMICAL REGULATION -
The Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) is the primary federal law by which the manufacture, import and use of chemical substances are regulated in the United...more
7/20/2016
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Air Pollution ,
Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act ,
Clean Air Act ,
Clean Water Act ,
Comment Period ,
Construction Industry ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
EPCRA ,
Final Action ,
Final Rules ,
Hawkes Co v United States Army Corps of Engineers ,
Jurisdictional Determination (JD) ,
Land-Use Permits ,
Manufacturers ,
MATS ,
Mining ,
Occupational Exposure ,
OSHA ,
Power Plants ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Sackett ,
SCOTUS ,
Shipbuilding ,
Silica ,
Toxic Chemicals ,
Toxic Exposure ,
Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) ,
US Army Corps of Engineers ,
Waters of the United States ,
Wetlands