The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is preparing to announce new regulations governing soot — the particles that trucks, farms, factories, wildfires, power plants, and dusty roads generate. By law, the agency isn’t supposed to consider the economic impact on impacted industries. In practice, it does, and those industries are warning of dire economic consequences if the regulations are adopted. Under the Clean Air Act, every five years EPA re-examines the science around several harmful pollutants. Public health advocates argue that EPA should set its standard regardless of the assistance available to cover the cost of compliance. The law has driven a vast decline in concentrations in areas like Los Angeles.
In response to electric power industry requests, EPA is looking to classify solar panels as universal waste. The agency is also working to create a category of universal waste specifically for lithium-ion batteries. EPA regulates hazardous waste pursuant to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. However, EPA has developed regulations for “universal waste,” which allow for an alternative set of requirements for certain hazardous wastes. These alternative regulations reduce the regulatory burden on qualifying wastes by allowing for longer storage of the materials and reduced recordkeeping.
The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has agreed to review the operating plans for a group of aging oil platforms off the coast of Southern California that were involved in a large oil spill two years ago. The agreement settles a 2022 lawsuit filed by an environmental group alleging that BOEM allowed oil companies to operate the platforms under outdated development and production plans that do not reflect current science, the scope of activities at the platforms, and environmental and safety standards. The review pertains to three drilling platforms and one processing platform at the so-called Beta Unit field off the coast of Huntington Beach that have been in operation since the early 1980s.
The binational agency that operates the aging federal wastewater treatment plant at the U.S.-Mexico border said declaring the sewage crisis an emergency to expedite the facility’s expansion may no longer be effective. But the California Coastal Commission said this Wednesday that all steps are needed to remedy the uncontrolled discharge of raw sewage and other pollutants as soon as possible. Commissioners approved sending President Joe Biden a letter urging him to do whatever it takes to accelerate projects aimed at improving the plant, which has allowed Tijuana sewage to foul South San Diego County shorelines. They also asked that he suspend regulations preventing the Department of State’s International Boundary and Water Commission, which manages the plant, from receiving money from non-federal entities.
A first-of-its-kind winegrower sustainability certification program in Napa Valley is changing its rules to require that vineyards eliminate the use of synthetic herbicides. Napa Green, a nonprofit established in 2004, announced on Tuesday that it will require members to phase out their use of Monsanto-made weed killer Roundup by 2026, and all other synthetic herbicides by 2028. The program currently has around 90 participating wineries. The move makes Napa Green the first of about 20 sustainable winegrowing certification programs worldwide to phase out synthetic herbicides.
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