Over two years ago I wrote about a lawsuit filed by a Connecticut-based solar farm developer with a summer home in Martha's Vineyard seeking to enjoin the Vineyard Wind project off the Massachusetts coast. This particular...more
Sam Hess of Inside EPA is reporting that Democrats in the House of Representatives and the Senate might be ready to work on legislation ending the longest running controversy in environmental law – the decades long battle...more
EPA is publishing its final rule specifying the role of States and Tribes in the Federal licensing or permitting of activities that may result in a "discharge" into a "Water of the United States". Like EPA's recent tenth...more
Sam Hess of Inside EPA reports that EPA and the Corps of Engineers are going to apply their tenth, post-Sackett, attempt to define Waters of the United States only in the states and territories that aren't subject to...more
The ever-vigilant Sam Hess of Inside EPA has posted an August presentation by an EPA official at the Association of Clean Water Administrators’ Annual Meeting. That presentation says that EPA has drafted new guidance based...more
Sam Hess's report in Inside EPA paints a nuanced picture of the apparently never ending controversy over the reach of the Clean Water Act. I can't help but offer a few reactions....more
Ahead of schedule, yesterday EPA and the US Army Corps of Engineers published their tenth attempt to specify the reach of the Federal Clean Water Act. The only question now is will its opponents file amended complaints in...more
8/30/2023
/ Clean Water Act ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Hawaii Wildlife Fund v County of Maui ,
Jurisdiction ,
Navigable Waters ,
Sackett v EPA ,
SCOTUS ,
Surface Water ,
US Army Corps of Engineers ,
Waters of the United States ,
Wetlands
Inside EPA is reporting that Potomac Riverkeeper and the United States Navy are discussing a settlement of the NGO's lawsuit alleging that the Navy's firing of munitions into the Potomac River without a NPDES permit violates...more
This week, in North Carolina Coastal Fisheries Reform Group, et al., v. Capt. Gaston LLC, a three judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a District Court Judge that when shrimpers use nets to catch...more
Last week the Waters Advocacy Coalition sent to the heads of the Environmental Protection Administration and the Corps of Engineers many "recommendations" regarding EPA's and the Corps' post-Sackett attempt to determine the...more
I'm surprised to see the Biden Administration EPA moving forward right now with a rule proposed during the Trump Administration to allow states to take over responsibility for the permitting of "dredge and fill" activities...more
7/20/2023
/ Biden Administration ,
Center for Biological Diversity ,
Clean Water Act ,
Discharge of Pollutants ,
Dredge and Fill ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Proposed Rules ,
Sackett v EPA ,
SCOTUS ,
Section 404 ,
Trump Administration ,
Waters of the United States ,
Wetlands
This week Massachusetts Federal District Court Judge Richard Stearns dismissed two counts of the Conservation Law Foundation's and Charles River Watershed Association's lawsuit against EPA and stayed until September of next...more
Inside EPA reports that EPA Assistant Administrator Radhika Fox has told Congress that we can expect a new Waters of the United States regulation in September. Assistant Administrator Fox promises that the new regulation...more
Just before the July 4th holiday, I was wondering out loud what was to be gained by having a Federal District Court decide the merits of a challenge to EPA's eighth attempt to determine the reach of the Clean Water Act. ...more
7/12/2023
/ Clean Water Act ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
NGOs ,
Rapanos v US ,
Sackett ,
Sackett v EPA ,
SCOTUS ,
US Army Corps of Engineers ,
Waters of the United States ,
Wetlands
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
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
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
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
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
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