A Ninth Circuit panel on Tuesday revived a Trump-era Clean Water Act regulation, finding that U.S. District Judge William Alsup erred when vacating a Trump administration revision of the “Clean Water Act 401 Certification Rule” without finding it to be unlawful. The restored rule provides that state and tribal governments may only consider impacts on water quality – and not air emissions or road traffic congestion – when determining whether a project, particularly one discharging pollution into a waterway, complies with state water quality standards.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last Friday reaffirmed the basis for a rule that requires “significant reductions” in mercury and other harmful pollutants from coal-fired power plants, reversing Trump-era efforts to roll back stringent mercury emissions standards. The agency said it found it “appropriate and necessary” to regulate emissions of toxic air pollution under the Clean Air Act, setting the stage to restore the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards adopted during the Obama administration.
Members of Congress are calling on the U.S. EPA to assist in the cleanup of areas surrounding the closed Exide battery recycling plant southeast of downtown Los Angeles. In a letter sent last Thursday to EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan, the legislators cited the findings of a Los Angeles Times investigation that numerous properties remediated at great cost to state taxpayers have been left with concentrations of lead in excess of state health standards. Exide, which has argued that it was not responsible for lead contamination in the surrounding neighborhoods, filed for bankruptcy in 2020. So far, the state has spent more than $336 million and overseen the remediation of nearly 4,400 properties.
The California State Water Resources Control Board decided this Tuesday to temporarily allow more storage in Central Valley reservoirs, waiving state rules that require water to be released to protect salmon and other endangered fish. The waiver means more water can be sent to the cities and growers that receive supplies from the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta through the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. The flow rules will remain suspended until March 31.
To date, most proposals to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere have focused on trying to scrub the greenhouse gas directly from the air. However some interest and funding is now pivoting to a process known as direct ocean carbon capture. Using public and private funding, two startups are testing different ocean carbon capture systems off the coasts of Orange and Los Angeles counties. Each hopes to scale up the technology for commercial markets within the next few years.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday announced a proposal to classify one of two dwindling California spotted owl populations as protected under the Endangered Species Act. The announcement follows a lawsuit by conservation groups seeking to require the government to reassess a prior administration decision not to protect the birds. The agency proposes to list the population that lives in coastal and Southern California as endangered. A second California spotted owl population, which lives in Sierra Nevada forests in California and western Nevada, would be classified as threatened, the agency said.
A new agreement between EPA and two environmental groups aims to accelerate smog mitigation efforts in Kern County and San Diego County, as well as in Texas’ Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. U.S. District Judge William Orrick on Tuesday approved the consent decree, committing EPA to meeting deadlines for reducing smog in the affected areas. Altogether, the agreement affects the air quality for around 10.6 million people.
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