The D.C. Circuit dismissed five states' petition to review EPA's extension of a compliance deadline for a revised national drinking water regulation, which in turn extended the deadline for states to enforce conforming regulations to their own. The states argued the extension would cause their resid...
The D.C. Circuit vacated EPA's withdrawal of its determination to regulate perchlorate in drinking water. An environmental group argued EPA lacked the authority to withdraw the determination under the SDWA, and that even if it did have such authority, it acted arbitrarily and capriciously in doing s...
Drinking water contamination in Flint, Michigan, has garnered much-needed nationwide attention, but such contamination is neither isolated, nor a primarily urban problem. A hidden water crisis is straining thousands of smaller communities that share Flint’s risk factors—shrinking populations, social marginalization, and deficient funds. This Article posits that the Safe Drinking Water Act’s increasingly decentralized monitoring and funding scheme has drained communities of the capacity to deliver safe water.
A state court preliminarily enjoined the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES) from enforcing new rules that tightened allowable limits of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the state's drinking water and groundwater. A chemical manufacturing company argued that DES vio...
A district court held that the city of Flint, Michigan, must choose a long-term water source and gave the city a week in which to do so. After the events of the Flint water crisis, EPA notified the city that it would need to make a decision about a long-term source of drinking water, probably before...
A district court held that a township's Home Rule Charter prohibiting deposition of any waste from oil and gas extraction within the township and invalidating any state permit to the contrary was preempted by the SDWA. In 2014, EPA granted an oil company a permit for an underground injection control...