EPA announced the availability of draft guidance on applying the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund in the CWA §402 NPDES permit program for point source discharges that travel through groundwater before reaching a water of the United States.
EPA invited public comment to inform the domestic availability of multiple products used in the construction, alteration, and/or maintenance of water infrastructure.
EPA adopted a Bureau of Indian Affairs’ categorical exclusion for waste management activities involving remediation of hazardous waste sites under NEPA for use by EPA’s Contaminated Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act Lands Assistance Program.
United States v. ACF Industries LLC, No. 3:23-cv-1603 (D. Or. Nov. 1, 2023). Under two proposed consent decrees, settling CERCLA, CWA, and OPA defendants whose facilities along the Willamette River released hazardous substances must pay cash and/or purchase restoration credits in one or more restoration projects approved by the Natural Resource Trustees to create habitat for injured natural resources, and make payments for the public’s lost recreational use of the river, for monitoring of culturally significant plants and animals, and for reimbursement of the Natural Resource Trustees’ costs.
United States v. Board of County Commissioners of Hamilton County, No. C-1-02-107 (S.D. Ohio Oct. 25, 2023). A proposed material modification to a consent decree under the CAA moves two projects back in priority order; changes the descriptions and design criteria for a few projects; adds a process to the Wet Weather Improvement Plan (WWIP) to address previously unidentified CSO or SSO outfalls; adds an additional short phase of work to the WWIP’s scheduling process; and makes a few clarifying changes to other aspects of the WWIP.
The Forest Service proposed to amend its special use regulations, which prohibit authorizing exclusive and perpetual use and occupancy of National Forest System lands, to provide an exemption for carbon capture and storage.
United States v. Revere, Massachusetts, City of, No. 1:10-cv-11460 (D. Mass. Oct. 25, 2023). Under a proposed first modification to a consent decree, a settling CWA defendant must update portions of its Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan and Comprehensive Stormwater Management Plan by December 31, 2026.
EPA announced the preliminary designation of stormwater discharges from certain commercial, industrial, and institutional sites in two watersheds in Los Angeles County, California, for regulation under the CWA NPDES permitting program.
Communities around the world are seeking to acknowledge nature’s rights through legal tools and litigation. This Article provides an overview of recent developments in earth law movements, including Rights of Nature, Rights of Rivers, and Ocean Rights, and considers the potential impacts these ecocentric conservation measures could have on Indigenous peoples and local communities.
EPA entered into a proposed consent decree under the CWA in Arizona Mining Reform Coalition v. Guzman (D. Ariz.) that would obligate EPA to establish copper and lead TMDLs for Queen Creek, Arizona, by July 31, 2028, unless the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality first establishes and submits them to EPA by January 31, 2027.