Federal Facilities

Rural water utilities are suggesting that a provision in the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) that gives the EPA administrator “sole judgment” to determine new contaminants may be vulnerable to a constitutional challenge under the “non-delegation” doctrine, and are urging the agency to address the issue in an upcoming rule governing perchlorate.

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.

EPA has released new draft toxicology assessments for two per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) known as GenX and PFBS, long-awaited by state agencies and other stakeholders, but the numbers -- a stricter level than North Carolina recently adopted for GenX and a weaker level than Minnesota adopted for PFBS -- continue the regulatory patchwork that EPA and states have created.

A just-filed Supreme Court petition could provide a vehicle for the justices to set a new standard on the Clean Water Act's (CWA) scope or even strike down a notoriously vague provision that governs federal jurisdiction under the law, which could end a “thicket” of litigation on the issue and short-circuit EPA's rule to clarify the law's reach.