California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) is seeking a stay of a recent bankruptcy settlement between the federal government and a lead-acid battery manufacturer because the agreement would allegedly leave thousands of properties without sufficient funding for the cleanup of lead, while also seeking an appeal of the ruling.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit is backing EPA’s authority to significantly extend the deadline for issuing federal standards for much of the country to require landfills to limit their methane emissions, even after a district court set an earlier deadline for the agency to act.
Environmentalists and radioactive-cleanup experts are criticizing EPA for reversing course on a decades-long policy that prohibits the use of a radioactive byproduct from fertilizer production as a component in federal road construction, with the critics saying the move is a “give away” to a powerful industry.
The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on the Superfund law’s statute of limitations underscores what litigants have called a split with the D.C. Circuit on the issue.
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler has announced the launch of a broad new federal strategy aimed at preventing and reducing marine litter worldwide, with a focus on boosting the capacity of waste management systems and collaborating with the private sector on providing incentives to the global recycling market to minimize waste.
Environmentalists are defending their appeal of a district court decision that partly remanded EPA’s approval of Oklahoma’s coal ash disposal permit program while upholding broader elements of the agency’s review process for state rules, arguing that waiting for the remand to conclude is pointless because it requires no new action from EPA.
EPA has finalized its rule allowing coal ash disposal sites that lack “composite” liners to keep operating if they can show there is “no reasonable probability” that the facilities will contaminate groundwater, teeing up a legal fight with environmentalists who say the rule violates both waste law and a 2018 appellate court decision.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in a split decision has ruled that the United States’ link to a World War II-era gold mine -- which the government ordered temporarily shut down to divert resources to other mining -- is too tenuous for it to be held liable under Superfund law for cleanup costs at the site.
The new panelists and panel leaders from industry and other deregulatory backgrounds signals that the administrator plans to rely on the board to review his planned agenda should Trump win a second term.
The latest suit adds to North Carolina’s legal and regulatory actions to address water and other contamination caused by the manufacture of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.
