EPA Comment Period Open on Proposed Clean Water Act Hazardous Substance Worst-Case Discharge Planning Regulations: EPA is seeking comments on requiring certain facilities to submit Clean Water Act (CWA) hazardous substance...more
Twenty-two agricultural organizations submitted February 7th comments to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”) addressing the federal agencies’ joint proposed rule to...more
On December 7, 2021, EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers jointly issued a formal Proposed Rule to define “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) regulated under the Clean Water Act (CWA). Comments on the proposal are due by...more
The proposed definition would significantly extend the regulatory scope of the Clean Water Act. On December 7, 2021, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Army Corps of Engineers (collectively, the Agencies)...more
On December 7, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) took their latest stab at clarifying the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act (CWA), proposing (another) new definition of...more
On Tuesday, December 7, 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers published for public comment a proposed rule revising the definition of “Waters of the United States” (“WOTUS”)....more
On November 18, 2021, The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) announced the availability of a pre-publication version of a proposed rule (Proposed Rule) to amend the definition of Waters...more
At the end of July, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that the Biden administration will begin working to create a “durable definition” of Waters of the United States (WOTUS). EPA and U.S. Army Corps of...more
Clarity Provided for New “Functional Equivalent” Test - Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published guidance on how to apply the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in County of Maui v. Hawai’i Wildlife Fund. The...more
On December 8, 2020, U.S. EPA announced issuance of draft guidance to clarify its view of how the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund decision should be applied to its Clean Water Act National...more
In a recent special alert addressing Northern Plains Resource Council v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, we reported that the federal district court for Montana vacated the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) Nationwide Permit...more
After decades of insisting otherwise and before the U.S. Supreme Court has had a chance to rule on the issue, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took steps to limit its interpretation of the Clean Water Act’s...more
Previously, we reported the Federal Circuit split (Part 1) regarding indirect discharges to navigable waters through groundwater and the Supreme Court’s grant of certiorari in one of those cases (Part 2), which will hopefully...more
February 2019 In Short The Situation: The definition of "waters of the United States" in the Clean Water Act ("CWA") circumscribes the jurisdictional authority of the federal government under the Act. This impacts not just...more
The Trump Administration’s proposed rule defining “Waters of the United States” under the federal Clean Water Act was published last week in the Federal Register....more
On December 11, 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the “Corps”) proposed new regulations that would sharply curtail the Corps’ permitting authority under the Clean Water...more
Fulfilling one of President Trump’s campaign promises, on December 11, 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of the Army (the Corps) signed a proposed rule to limit the scope of the...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of the Army (Corps) have recently proposed a “clear, understandable, and implementable definition of ‘waters of the United States’...more
For the second time in the last 4 years, and the seventh since the Clean Water Act was adopted in 1972, the federal government has revised the definition of the term “Waters of the United States” for the purposes of the...more
A Clean Water Act permit is required for discharging wastewater from injection wells into groundwater where wastewater is “fairly traceable” to navigable waters, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held in Hawai’i...more
On February 1, 2018, the Ninth Circuit ruled in Hawai’i Wildlife Fund v. City of Maui that contamination that is discharged into the ground and later escapes through groundwater migration into a navigable waterway requires a...more
On February 20, the Environmental Protection Agency published in the Federal Register a request for comments on a longstanding EPA policy regarding the question of whether and to what extent discharges to groundwater might be...more
In response to the Ninth Circuit’s recent opinion in Hawai’i Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) is now seeking public comments on the proper scope of its authority under the...more
On February 20, 2018, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a notice in the Federal Register requesting public comment on whether the EPA can regulate discharges to groundwater that flow to jurisdictional...more
Keeping track of the ongoing administrative and judicial developments on the issue of Clean Water Act jurisdiction has become almost as complex as trying to make a jurisdictional determination itself. Here is a handy synopsis...more