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Radhika Fox, the EPA’s assistant administrator for water, issued the memo 2022–2032 Vision for the Clean Water Act Section 303(d) Program to the EPA regional administrators in September. Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act (CWA) authorizes the EPA to assist states, territories, and authorized tribes in listing impaired waters and developing total maximum daily […]
The recent report “How the EPA’s lax regulation of dangerous pesticides is hurting public health and the US economy” by the Brookings Institution highlights ways the EPA is lagging behind the rest of the world in regulating pesticides to protect human and wildlife health. The report lists approximately 85 agricultural pesticides that are still approved […]
In August, the EPA received $5 million from Congress under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) for programs to boost voluntary corporate climate reporting while the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ramps up for legal battles regarding its upcoming mandatory climate change reporting rules. To report or not to report Many companies have jumped onto the […]
The EPA announced the first 18 states to receive Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) funding for water infrastructure improvements. The BIL allocates more than $50 billion to the EPA for repairing the nation’s essential water infrastructure, which helps communities access clean, safe, and reliable drinking water; increase resilience; collect and treat wastewater to protect public health; […]
On September 13, 2022, a group of environmental and community advocacy organizations petitioned the EPA to close “loopholes” in the regulations implementing the Clean Air Act (CAA) that “allow facilities like oil refineries, chemical plants, and incinerators to disregard emission standards, stop reporting their pollution, and avoid fines or other consequences for excess pollution they […]
Having failed to reach the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ground-level ozone by July 20, 2021, the EPA announced a final proposed action to downgrade the following five regions from “Serious” nonattainment status to “Severe”: Dallas-Fort Worth, TX Denver-Boulder-Greeley-Ft. Collins-Loveland, CO Houston-Galveston-Brazoria, TX Morongo Band of Mission Indians, CA New York-N. New […]
The EPA Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a press statement on September 13, 2022, announcing it will begin an investigation into the Jackson, Mississippi, severe water crisis. The city’s water system has been plagued with issues for years, having been the subject of many EPA enforcement actions, including emergency orders and notices of noncompliance. […]
The EPA’s proposed rulemaking to designate two per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)—perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), including their salts and structural isomers—as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) hit a snag after its Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review. The review identified the proposal as “economically […]
On August 31, 2022, the EPA published proposed amendments to its Clean Air Act (CAA) Risk Management Program in the Federal Register. The proposed revisions include changes to the accident prevention program requirements, enhancements to the emergency preparedness requirements, increased public availability of chemical hazard information, and changes/points of clarification to certain regulatory definitions. These […]
The EPA recently proposed revisions to strengthen the Risk Management Program (RMP) rule, including enhanced employee participation and transparency for communities on safety decisions. The RMP rule requires industrial facilities with high accident rates to prevent accidental air releases of dangerous chemicals that could cause deaths, injuries, or property and environmental damage or require evacuations […]