New York City recently amended the City Environmental Quality Review (CEQR) regulations to exempt small residential developments from environmental review. The regulations, called "Green Fast Track for Housing," seek to...more
Welcome to the first edition of The Leisure Law Insider, brought to you by Akerman's Chambers ranked Hospitality Sector Team! It will be released quarterly, covering the latest news and developments in leisure and hospitality...more
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on a long-standing controversy over the extent to which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE; collectively, the Agencies) have...more
6/26/2023
/ Clean Water Act ,
Construction Project ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Federal Jurisdiction ,
Inland Waterways ,
Navigable Waters ,
Real Estate Development ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Sackett ,
Sackett v EPA ,
SCOTUS ,
Significant Nexus Test ,
US Army Corps of Engineers ,
Waters of the United States ,
Wetlands
Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published new proposed rules under the Safe Drinking Water Act that will severely limit the levels of certain substances of a man-made family of chemicals,...more
4/17/2023
/ Comment Period ,
Contamination ,
Discharge of Pollutants ,
Drinking Water ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Hazardous Substances ,
Infrastructure ,
PFAS ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Health ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Safe Drinking Water Act ,
Toxic Chemicals ,
Toxic Exposure
Exactly what should be considered "waters of the United States" as it applies to the Clean Water Act has been ill defined and contended in the courts and in Congress for more than 15 years. A review of recent court decisions...more
Section 404 of the Clean Water Act of 1972, 33 U.S.C. Section 1251 et seq., prohibits the discharge of dredged or fill material into “navigable waters” without a permit. Section 502(7) of that act defines “navigable waters”...more
3/7/2023
/ Clean Water Act ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Discharge of Pollutants ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Federal Jurisdiction ,
Navigable Waters ,
Navigable Waters Protection Rule ,
Rapanos v US ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Sackett ,
US Army Corps of Engineers ,
Waters of the United States
On September 30, 2022, a group of environmental justice advocates, New York City Council member, Alexa Aviles, and New York State Assembly member, Marcela Mitaynes, filed an application with the New York City Department of...more
In a decision and order issued June 27, 2022, Justice Consuelo Mallafre Menendez of the New York State Supreme Court, Kings County, dismissed the challenge to the Gowanus Neighborhood Rezoning filed by the Voice of Gowanus...more
The procedure-based litigation over the EPA and Army Corps' "Waters of the United States" rule (WOTUS) is continuing. The agencies issued WOTUS, which they intended to constitute the implementation of the Supreme Court’s...more
On January 19, 2016, President Obama issued the ninth veto of his presidency, rejecting Joint Resolution 22, a congressional resolution that would have overturned EPA’s recently enacted regulations defining the "waters of the...more