As EPA prepares to consider its long-awaited plan to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a group of rural utilities is urging acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler "to resist calls for a national" drinking water standard for PFAS, asking the agency instead to focus on alternative methods to deal with contamination rather than regulation.

Peter Grevatt, EPA's top official overseeing cross-agency policy on high-profile perfluorinated chemicals, is retiring from the agency after 30 years, creating uncertainty about who will take over the major task of responding to calls from lawmakers, states and communities to develop a comprehensive plan to address the contaminants.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit is ordering the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to respond to environmentalists' bid for rehearing of a decision that rejected Clean Water Act (CWA) liability for pollution that travels through groundwater to surface waters -- a signal that at least some judges could be considering granting the petition.

A host of mining industry groups is defending EPA's decision to drop a rule creating first-ever Superfund financial assurance requirements for the hardrock mining sector, detailing to a federal circuit court how existing state and federal regulations are stringent enough to make any additional EPA requirements unnecessary, duplicative and onerous to the industry.

Industry parties intervening in litigation brought by environmentalists over EPA's revised definition of solid waste (DSW) rule are urging a federal appellate court to dismiss the case for a variety of reasons, including the court's lack of jurisdiction and that it already resolved these same legal issues in earlier litigation.

The Supreme Court has rejected a petition that called for limiting criminal and civil penalties against individual corporate officers who violate environmental laws, letting stand a decision by the Texas Supreme Court that imposed a $367,250 fine on the owner of a land-holding company for violations of the state's contaminated-site laws.

EPA enforcement officials are privately blaming Trump administration policies for a sharp drop in new criminal and civil cases, settlements and other actions despite the agency's public defense of its enforcement record, according to an environmental group's new report that says the officials are weighing options for reversing the decline.

Environmentalists have grudgingly agreed to EPA's request to extend until April a court-ordered deadline for proposing a health-based drinking water goal for the rocket fuel ingredient perchlorate, acknowledging that EPA has yet to craft such a standard while expressing their frustration with the pace of the agency's efforts.

EPA's National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) Nov. 28 approved charge questions from the agency's waste office, calling on it to offer recommendations on improving EPA relationships with communities on effective and equitable cleanups and site reuse, and in ensuring the agency clearly communicates risk to communities.

The Army's installations and environment office has ordered the service's commands to immediately seek to reduce the open-burning of explosives waste in the face of ongoing pressure from citizens groups to end the practice just as the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is slated to suggest demilitarization alternatives to open burning/open detonation (OB/OD) of munitions.