Podcast - Hot Topics in Nuclear Waste
In the latest edition of the PFAS Primer Quarterly Update, our roundup of regulatory, litigation, and scientific actions involving PFAS, states exempt PFAS products – except the states that don’t, defendants can remove PFAS...more
A recent lawsuit against Synagro Technologies, Inc. raises important questions about the role of biosolids in PFAS contamination and the legal responsibilities of manufacturers. The case, Farmer v. Synagro Tech., Inc., No....more
Affected landowners may be able to avail themselves of certain protections under state and federal environmental laws. In the aftermath of the wildfires in the Los Angeles area in January 2025, a cleanup effort is...more
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has extended the public comment period for the Draft Sewage Sludge Risk Assessment for Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) and Perfluorooctane Sulfonic Acid (PFOS) (“Draft...more
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) issued a report titled: An Assessment of the U.S. Recycling System: Financial Estimates to Modernize Material Recovery Infrastructure (“Report”)....more
In the past month, both Maine and Massachusetts have taken steps to implement extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws and rules, with the intent of shifting the financial responsibility of managing packaging material from...more
The Washington Department of Ecology is undertaking a rulemaking process to update its organic materials management regulations to include permitting requirements for facilities that manage and process organic materials. The...more
The Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials (“ASTSWMO”) released an August 2024 report titled: Lessons Learned Addressing Contaminants of Emerging Concern at Federal Facility Cleanups...more
The United States Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") on April 10, 2024 issued the first-ever federal regulatory limits on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water. The EPA's PFAS drinking water...more
The Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials (“ASTSWMO”) Board of Directors submitted a March 19th letter to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) providing comments on its...more
On October 18, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention submitted a final rule for publication in the Federal Register, amending 40 CFR Part 372, involving reporting...more
The Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials (“ASTSWMO”) issued a December 2022 guidance document titled: Technical Assistance Resources to Support the Reuse of Brownfield Sites (“Guidance”)...more
As previously reported in ELM, microplastics – plastic fragments smaller than 5 millimeters in length – have been found everywhere from Antarctica...more
On November 23, 2021, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) Director of the Office of Compliance requested that TCEQ approve a proposed rulemaking intended to respond to a series of industrial events occurring over...more
On November 3, 2021, the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) published its final PFAS Chemical Action Plan (Plan), which provides a roadmap for addressing uses and releases of those chemicals in Washington State to...more
The Background: In recent years, the scientific and regulatory communities have paid increasing attention to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances ("PFAS"), which have been common components for decades in consumer and...more
Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation Centralizes Some COVID‐19 Related Insurance Cases As reported in our September update, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation at its July 2020 hearing session requested...more
The Court of Appeals of Arkansas (“Court”) addressed in a September 11th opinion the City of Magnolia, Arkansas’s (“Magnolia”) challenge to the allocation of a Columbia County sales and use tax to finance a Solid Waste...more
The Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials (“ASTSWMO”) submitted June 10th comments to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (‘EPA”) addressing the: Draft Interim Recommendations...more
Pierce Atwood LLP offers this summary of Maine Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) standards as a convenience in evaluating PFAS and tracking Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) regulatory and Maine...more
The Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials (“ASTSWMO”) published a paper titled: Time-Critical Removal Capabilities (“Paper”) - The Paper was prepared by the ASTSWMO Removals Focus Group...more