Strong Headwinds Face Water Quality Trading in the Chesapeake
The Chesapeake Bay watershed covers 64,000 square miles in parts of Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. When the six states and the...
View ArticleWhen Should A Regulatory Program Be Eliminated?
It is certainly not unusual for regulatory agencies implementing water quality standard programs to conduct periodic reviews of the appropriateness of those programs. Such has been the case with the...
View ArticleThe New Mexico Supreme Court Holds that the Copper Mine Remediation Rule is...
Since 2013, when the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission (“WQCC”) enacted the most comprehensive Copper Mine remediation rule in the country, the Attorney General and various NGOs have...
View ArticleDid a Bureaucratic Fog Envelop the Flint Water Crisis?
The Flint water crisis began in April 2014 when the City of Flint switched its source of drinking water from Lake Huron to the Flint River without installing corrosion control treatment to protect...
View ArticleWhat’s on the Menu: Trout or Shark?
In 2015, EPA published its final updated ambient water quality criteria for the protection of human health for 94 chemical pollutants. This updated suite of recommendations was designed to reflect the...
View ArticleORSANCO ADDS FLEXIBILITY TO OHIO RIVER WATER QUALITY PROGRAM
In an earlier blog, I raised the question of “When Should A Regulatory Program Be Eliminated”.After a four-year effort, three public comment periods, four hearings and six webinars, the Ohio River...
View ArticleThe PFAS Battle Heats Up In The Northeast?
New Hampshire, like many northeast states, is pursuing a concerted regulatory and litigation approach to address contamination from emerging contaminants in the so-called PFAS suite of chemicals, (per-...
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Modern Day Alchemy: New Help for Treating Acid Mine Drainage
Two promising new technologies—recovery of rare earths from acid mine drainage (AMD and conversion of AMD treatment by-products to paint pigments are bringing new hope to remediating AMD polluted...
View ArticleNot So Fast! Oregon DEQ Objects to EPA’s Draft NPDES Permits for Lower...
On May 15, 2020, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (“DEQ”) submitted a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) in which it objected to EPA’s draft water quality discharge...
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EPA Finalizes New Clean Water Act Section 401 Certification Rules—Will States...
On June 1, 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency released its new rules implementing section 401 of the Clean Water Act (CWA). Section 401 provides that before a federal agency can approve a...
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