According to a complaint filed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the DeKalb County Wastewater Treatment Facility discharged untreated wastewater into the...more
Everyone from Bloomberg to CNN to the Boston Globe is reporting today on US Geologic Survey research concluding that "nearly half" (45 percent to be precise) of US drinking water sources contain detectable concentrations of...more
Just before the July 4th holiday I was wondering what opponents to EPA's and the Army Corps of Engineers' now moribund Waters of the United States regulation hoped to gain by having a Federal District Court Judge in the Lone...more
Sam Hess of Inside EPA reports that Idaho, Texas and several NGOs are pressing a District Court Judge in the Lone Star State to decide their challenge to the Biden Administration's Waters of the United States rule on the...more
James Russell Lowell wrote that one thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning. This week's nearly 400 million dollar settlement between a New Jersey plastic manufacturer and the State of New Jersey over the...more
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
About a year and a half ago I wrote about one of the four lawsuits brought in an attempt to halt the Vineyard Wind project (see...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
The Wall Street Journal is reporting on the time it takes to permit an infrastructure project in these United States and what might be done about it. The average time it takes for National Environmental Policy Act review,...more
ACK Rat's attempt to kill the Vineyard Wind project came closer to an unsuccessful end this week when Federal Judge Talwani granted a motion for summary judgment against ACK Rat and its founder that will end the case unless...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
The Boston Globe reports that a Maine jury has now determined that the developer of the New England Clean Energy Connect project relied in good faith on Maine's prior approval of the project when it spent nearly a half...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
Seems like just yesterday that the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled on New England Clean Energy Connect's challenge to the retroactive initiative petition that might have killed the project to get hydropower from Canada to...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