Waste

EPA and the Sierra Club have dropped their long-running suit against Texas utility Luminant for violations of new source review (NSR) permitting requirements in an effort to avoid a broad adverse precedent that could hamstring future actions to seek injunctive relief for past violations under multiple statutes across a wide swath of the country.

Current and former government officials are strongly criticizing a draft guidance crafted by the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) that instruct agencies to limit the scope of how they consider greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts when conducting National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews.

As lawmakers gear up to resolve differences in their pending defense bills to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), water utility groups are, for the first time, detailing joint principles, including asking for a liability exemption for PFAS-containing residuals if the bill requires EPA to designate the chemicals as “hazardous substances” under the Superfund law.

EPA has sent for White House review the first of at least two rulemakings to revise Obama-era coal ash disposal standards in response to a 2018 court ruling that the policy was too weak, but the pending proposal will put off addressing the court mandate to regulate unlined and “legacy” ash sites in favor of a deadline extension and other issues.