More than a dozen states are opposing environmentalists' lawsuit that seeks to compel EPA to reverse course and set Superfund financial requirements for the hardrock mining sector, with state officials warning that an EPA rule would preempt state mandates and prompt a flood of lawsuits threatening billions of dollars in cleanup assurances that states hold.
A new appellate court ruling that says EPA-led Superfund cleanup actions are “discretionary” and exempt from the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) could bolster the agency's defense against suits that seek restitution for damage caused by cleanups, including ongoing litigation over the 2015 Gold King Mine spill caused by an EPA cleanup.
EPA and a Colorado River tribal government are defending a Resource Conservation & Recovery Act permit for carbon regeneration against a facility’s complex legal challenge.
“The only reasonable conclusion is that the dredged areas have been recontaminated by PCB-laden sediment from non-dredged areas located nearby,” a consultant for two local environmental groups say.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is calling on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit to deny environmentalists' bid for rehearing of a divided panel’s holding that TVA cannot face Clean Water Act (CWA) liability for groundwater leaks from its coal ash storage, arguing the decision did not break with precedent or create a circuit split.
The Supreme Court is giving the Trump administration just one month to weigh in on whether the Clean Water Act (CWA) limits pollution that travels through groundwater to protected surface waters, potentially posing a difficult test for EPA as the agency is in the early stages of crafting a rule or guidance to address the same question.
The agency's proposal would give states three years -- until August 2019 -- to submit a compliance plan for the 2016 methane standards for existing facilities, while also extending EPA's deadlines to review plans.
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.
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.
