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Like it or not, what is and isn't a Water of the United States is clearer, but what is and isn't a Diligent Prosecution remains...

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

There are many headlines today that "nearly half" of our drinking water contains PFAS, but no mentions of Paracelsus, and here's...

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

Kudos to Kentucky, not that the 6th Circuit stay of its WOTUS challenge is going to matter very much.

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

Now that the Supreme Court has decided Sackett maybe we should leave courts out of the Clean Water Act rule making business for a...

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

If a thorn of experience is worth a wilderness of warning then what happened this week in NJ is a whopper of a PFAS thorn

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

More than a month after the Supreme Court's Sackett decision, the Army Corps of Engineers still isn't open for business. What's...

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

PFAS Manufacturers Continue to Pay Massive Claims But Do They Have Enough Money to Pay Them All?

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

At least two Supreme Court Justices think there's a limit to Congress's ability to fix the Clean Water Act

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

Sackett turned out exactly like we thought it would turn out. What's next?

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

If you're sad about Sackett, you may be happier about Seafreeze

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

Congress might make it so the US Forest Service doesn't need to get Federal and State NPDES permits to keep fighting fires.

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

A renewable energy project is on the verge of having all the permits it needs, after SEVENTEEN years. What's next?

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

Vineyard Wind has almost succeeded in ending one of the three NIMBY lawsuits against it but that's beside the point.

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

Surprising no one, those pursued to pay for PFAS contamination are buckling under the weight of those claims. What's next?

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

EPA's Waters of the United States regulation is now the law in only 23 of our 50 United States as all eyes turn to the Supreme...

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

Shooting fish in a barrel: Why I'm surprised the courts haven't already been flooded with PFAS Clean Water Act Citizen Suits.

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

Confucius said life is really simple but we insist on making it complicated. That brings us to EPA's announcement yesterday about...

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 has issued an "order" permitting continued PFAS discharges at concentrations much higher than what it says are dangerous....

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

EPA and many States have decided that PFAS can't be in the environment. Now Maine is learning how hard it is to stop them from...

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

Those Maine Courts sure work quickly but we still need to remove the roadblocks in the way of our renewable energy future!

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

The US Senate is talking about making it easier to get to our renewable energy future. Will that talk result in action in time?

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

Surprising no one, EPA's eighth attempt at determining the reach of the Clean Water Act is now the law in less than half of the...

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

The Bay State's ability to meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals is now in the hands of a Maine jury. Does that make any sense...

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

50 years later, another President is at odds with Congress over the Clean Water Act. What's next?

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

EPA's most recent Waters of the United States rule endures a challenge in Kentucky, at least for now.

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

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