Waste

Environmentalists and EPA are making competing arguments for an appellate court's path forward on revisions to Obama-era coal ash disposal standards the agency has pledged to reconsider, with the challengers now suggesting the court could scrap the new rule but stay that mandate to avoid making regulatory compliance “impossible.”

The Energy Department's (DOE) liability for cleaning up the remaining 16 contaminated sites in its nuclear weapons complex jumped $109 billion over the past year, to $377 billion, largely due to updated estimates for addressing high-level radioactive waste at the Hanford reservation in Richland, WA, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says in a just-released report.

A federal bankruptcy judge is hinting that he may preserve a massive case against the parent companies of the bankrupt oil and gas company Maxus Energy Corporation that seeks to fulfill claims by a liquidating trust representing EPA and other creditors for $14 billion in cleanup costs at hazardous waste sites in various states.

The Trump administration's delay in issuing recommended groundwater cleanup levels for two of the most common per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) is hampering state and local efforts to address contamination stemming from military bases as the Defense Department (DOD) resists compliance with state standards.