EPA finalizes PFAS reporting rule

Waste Today – October 3

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized a rule that will provide the agency, its partners, and the public with a dataset of certain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) manufactured and used in the United States. According to EPA, the dataset will be the largest of its kind. The reporting rule under the Toxic Substances Control Act requires all manufacturers of PFAS and PFAS-containing products in any year since 2011 to provide PFAS-related information to EPA, including chemical identity, uses, volumes, byproducts, environmental and health effects, worker exposure, and disposal. The final rule expands on the definition of PFAS set forth in the prior proposed rule to include 41 additional PFAS that were identified as being of concern.

News

North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board pursues record-setting $8.6 million fine against BoDean quarry

North Bay Bohemian – October 3

A Sonoma County building materials company is facing an $8.6 million fine for polluting salmon habitat. In mid-September, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board recommended the record-breaking fine against BoDean Company for allegedly allowing more than 10.5 million gallons of sediment-tainted water to run off its 120-acre Mark West Quarry into alleged crucial salmon habitat during rainstorms in the winter of 2018-19, and then failing to adequately reform its storm water management practices in the subsequent five years. The Water Board has a separate case against BoDean relating to water control practices at its Santa Rosa asphalt production plant. According to Claudia Villacorta, assistant executive officer of the Water Board, the proposed fine is the largest ever sought in the North Coast region, which stretches from Santa Rosa to the Oregon border.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes protection for West Coast turtles in response to lawsuit

Courthouse News Service – September 29

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed last Friday to place northwestern and southwestern pond turtles, which live throughout California, Washington, and Oregon, under Endangered Species Act protection after the Center for Biological Diversity first petitioned to protect the pond turtles in 2012. The service determined in 2015 that Endangered Species Act protection may be warranted for pond turtles, but delayed protection at that time. Despite its name, the pond turtle can be found in rivers and other bodies of water like creeks, marshes, irrigation ditches, or reservoirs.

Possible new AQMD regulation causing concern at Ports of LA and Long Beach

Los Angeles Daily News – October 4

A proposal called the Ports Indirect Source Rule (ISR) No. 2304, still being crafted by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD), is intended to reduce emissions from mobile sources related to marine port operations. A September 26 hearing on the proposal held by the California State Assembly’s Select Committee on Ports and Goods Movement at the Port of Los Angeles Administration Building drew several panels of experts, as well as public speakers, to testify about the proposed ISR. Some witnesses worried that the rule could effectively cap the amount of goods coming through the LA/Long Beach gateway. A second hearing by the committee will be held at the Port of Oakland on November 2.

California lawmakers have a plan to plug old, vapor-emitting oil wells. Could it backfire?

Los Angeles Times – October 3

State legislators passed a bill last month that would require owners of abandoned oil wells in California to set aside more funding to properly seal wells once their use has ended. Governor Gavin Newsom has until October 14 to sign or veto the legislation. Assembly Bill 1167 would prohibit the sale or transfer of idle or low-producing wells unless the new owner obtains a bond that would ensure payment of the full cost of plugging them. But the measure attracted a surprising adversary: Governor Newsom’s Department of Finance. A July analysis from that department warned that “the additional costs could unintentionally act as a disincentive for larger operations to purchase smaller operations, which are the operators that are more likely unable to cover the cost of plugging idle or orphan wells in the first place.”