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In its FY 2018-2022 Strategic Plan, the EPA listed the cleanup of contaminated properties and their return to productive economic and community use as one of its top three priorities. Among its goals, the Agency stated that it wants to make 255 additional Superfund sites and 3,420 additional brownfield sites ready for anticipated use by […]
The EPA is moving steadily along its apparent path of concluding that it is not necessary to require that facilities in certain industrial sectors comply with the financial responsibility requirements of Section 108(b) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund). In its latest action, the Agency is proposing not to […]
Many stakeholders are following—or should be following—the federal government’s plans to address the impact of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on human health and the environment. There is a lot to follow. PFAS are a family of chemicals first synthesized in the 1940s. It is a very large family. According to the EPA’s February 2019 […]
If a federal agency proposes a regulation and then subsequently declines to promulgate that regulation, is the second action arbitrary and capricious because it is not a “logical outgrowth” of the proposal, that is, because the option not to regulate is not sufficiently discussed in the proposal?
The EPA is proposing not to use its authority under Section 108(b) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund) to impose financial responsibility requirements on facilities in the electric power generation, transmission, and distribution sector.
In a final rule, the EPA has exempted air emissions from animal waste at farms from the emergency release notification requirements of Section 304 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA).
In an April 11, 2019, ruling, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit affirmed a district court decision that found that two companies that sold a contaminated property to another company were jointly and severally liable for $5.4 million in response costs; one of the companies was also found liable […]
In its Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Action Plan, released in February 2019, the EPA noted that in 2018, it initiated the regulatory development process for listing the two most problematic PFAS—perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS)—as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund).
The EPA is proposing to extend an existing reporting exemption under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) to release notification rules under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). The CERCLA extension applies to air emissions from animal waste at farms.
In September 2018, the EPA added five sites in five states to the National Priorities List (NPL) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund).