EPA’s listing of two “forever Chemicals” as CERCLA hazardous substances will re-open sites that companies had thought were closed. And every user of a product that contained them may become responsible for a share of the...more
4/23/2024
/ Biden Administration ,
CERCLA ,
Contamination ,
Discharge of Pollutants ,
Drinking Water ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Hazardous Substances ,
PFAS ,
Public Health ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Toxic Chemicals ,
Wastewater ,
Water Management
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (“ADEQ”) filed suit against a company alleging that it was violating an Administrative Consent Order (“ACO”). What made the lawsuit unusual was that ADEQ also sued 3 individual...more
Using a rarely invoked exception to the Administrative Procedure Act’s requirement for public notice and comment prior to issuing a new rule, the EPA set forth a new rule governing jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act...more
While various States have enacted various regulations covering a wide variety of differing standards over the years, the EPA never created a national standard for remedial or drinking water levels. Finally, after decades of...more
Environmental practitioners are well aware of the astonishing breadth and scope of the impacts resulting from the investigations into the ubiquitous presence of the so-called “forever chemicals”, including the significant...more
In a memo to agency leadership sent earlier this month, EPA Administrator Michael Regan rescinded practices that were instituted by one of his Trump-era predecessors, Scott Pruitt, to eliminate what has been referred to by...more
The Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure bill, which passed Aug. 10, contains a provision that would bring back an excise tax that expired in 1995 on a lengthy list of raw chemicals. House Democrats also want it to cover crude...more
As most people are aware, various public and private entities have filed lawsuits against fossil fuel producers alleging a variety of claims that seek to enjoin behavior and obtain damages as a result of the defendants’...more
The EPA and the Corps of Engineers are seeing an unprecedented amount of requests for determining whether or not an activity impacts a Water of the United States and triggers Clean Water Act restrictions and permitting. As...more
Somewhat lost amidst all the (well deserved) COVID-19 pandemic news that comes out daily, is a decision by the Justice Department regarding the settlement of environmental enforcement cases that will likely have profound...more
Because proving who is responsible for introducing PFAS contamination into water supplies can be difficult and expensive, and pursuing government entities such as military bases, firefighting training facilities and airports...more
Reported to be at the direction of the Department of Justice, the EPA is now requiring that anyone willing to enter into an Administrative Order of Consent must first agree to surrender all claims against the United States...more
More than 1,000,000 drones have been registered. The increasing use of drones by hobbyists means more and more concerned citizens and NGOs have the ability to obtain evidence of environmental violations. But what can be done...more
If you haven’t heard of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), you likely will soon. Like DDT, PCBs, asbestos, and MTBE before it, PFAS are a class of chemicals that have been used in a wide variety of commercial and...more
2/15/2019
/ CERCLA ,
Contamination ,
Drinking Water ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Groundwater ,
Hazardous Substances ,
Municipalities ,
Pollution Control ,
Public Health ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Safe Drinking Water Act ,
Statistical Sampling ,
Toxic Chemicals ,
Utilities Sector ,
Water Supplies
Following the presidential election, much was made of the enormous changes that the new president intended to make at the EPA, and his choice for Director, Scott Pruitt, resulted in heated opposition and a frenzied uproar...more
United States EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has hired Henry Darwin to serve the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as its Chief of Operations. Under both Republican and Democrat administrations, as the Director of the...more
In a recent unpublished case, the Superior Court of New Jersey held that the Plaintiff in a CERCLA case had committed spoliation when, during the course of the remedial activity, it disposed of various contaminated materials....more
Regardless of whether you are a Trump supporter or Trump hater, and there certainly seems to be very few people who are indifferent to the guy, trying to prognosticate what he will do is very difficult. He is a political...more
The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were recently amended. Amongst the changes, perhaps the most significant are the changes to discovery under Rule 26.
Previously, parties were entitled to conduct discovery regarding...more