News
EPA finalizes rule allowing some major polluters to follow weaker emissions standards
The Hill – October 1
The EPA on Thursday finalized a rule that could reclassify many “major” sources of pollution as minor ones, allowing facilities to abide by less-stringent emissions standards for toxins such as mercury, lead, and arsenic. The reclassification changes a 1995 rule that for decades has held major emitters to tighter standards even if their operators have taken actions to reduce their pollution — a policy known as “once in, always in.” The agency estimated that the changes will result in up to 1,258 tons per year of additional emissions of hazardous air pollutants.
California tightens rules on rat poisons that kill wildlife
U.S. News & World Report – September 24
Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday signed a bill widely restricting the use of certain highly potent rat poisons that are blamed for killing mountain lions, birds, and endangered wildlife. Assembly Bill 1788 bars the general use of so-called second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides, or SGARs, until the director of the state Department of Pesticide Regulation certifies that the chemicals have been reevaluated and any additional restrictions needed to limit the impact on wildlife are adopted. Last month, wildlife officials announced that an adult bobcat and a young mountain lion living west of Los Angeles both died after ingesting rat poisons. Although consumer sales of SGARs were banned in 2014, the chemicals are still widely used commercially and in agriculture.
Project to drain Santa Clara County’s largest reservoir begins
East Bay Times – September 29
Santa Clara County’s largest reservoir will soon be nearly empty, and will stay that way for the next 10 years. Under orders from federal dam regulators, the Santa Clara Valley Water District will begin a project to drain Anderson Reservoir this Thursday, the first step in a $576 million effort to tear down and rebuild its aging dam. The 240-foot earthen dam, built in 1950 and located between Morgan Hill and San Jose, poses too great of a risk of collapse during a major earthquake, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which regulates dams, concluded in February when it issued the order.
BLM court ruling could unravel federal public lands decisions
The Hill – September 28
A federal judge's decision to remove William Perry Pendley, the controversial acting director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), could jeopardize years of actions the administration has taken on public lands, including an expansion of oil and gas drilling and the decision to uproot the agency’s headquarters. A Montana-based U.S. District Court judge last Friday ruled that Pendley "served unlawfully... for 424 days," giving the Department of the Interior 10 days to justify why many of the decisions Pendley has made during his tenure should not be invalidated.
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