Latest News from Inside EPA

EPA Region 5 is auditing Michigan regulators' oversight of the state's drinking water systems after local advocates charged that the state's environment department failed to properly investigate a crisis in Flint, MI, where the city experienced elevated levels of lead and other contaminants after switching the source for its municipal water supply.

EPA is asking the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota to stay a lawsuit filed by 11 states over the agency's Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction rule until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit rules on whether it has power to hear suits over the rule, arguing that a stay is vital to avoid creating duplicative litigation.

EPA is touting a new federal strategy that aims to reduce human exposures to the radioactive gas radon by requiring testing and mitigation technologies in millions of homes and school, making the precautionary measures standard practice in housing finance and insurance programs, as well as in building code requirements.

States, industry groups and environmentalists are raising serious -- and sometimes contradictory -- concerns over EPA's latest attempt to craft a rule to mitigate interstate air pollution transport, even as the proposed measure is under White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review before its expected release sometime this fall.

EPA's notice of data availability (NODA) on interstate air pollution is prompting disparate concerns from states and industry groups over the accuracy and legality of the agency's technical approach, which could complicate efforts to use the data to plan "good neighbor" efforts to curb one state's pollution hindering air quality in another state.

Producers of the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) are challenging an EPA risk assessment that the agency is using to weigh a rare ban of certain uses of the chemical under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), arguing the "work plan" review relied on a flawed toxicology study and that the agency failed to adequately address peer reviewers' advice.

EPA programs based on specific statutes, like the Superfund program, must do a better job of assessing cumulative risk and potential health outcomes before making decisions, EPA research chief Tom Burke told a recent children's health conference, noting that emerging issues like climate change pose challenges that cross traditional boundaries of scientific training and research.

Appellate judges at Nov. 9 oral argument suggested EPA erred in granting California a Clean Air Act waiver to issue non-road engine air rules stricter than federal requirements, saying the agency might have misread the law by basing its approval on the rules being “nationally applicable” rather than having “nationwide scope or effect.”

EPA as part of a recent settlement with environmentalists is asking for information about existing federal, state and other programs designed to control stormwater runoff from roads on forest lands, seeking to determine whether federal regulations are needed -- while cautioning that it has not made any decision to craft such rules.

The White House has formally withdrawn de facto EPA water chief Ken Kopocis' long-pending nomination to head the Office of Water, weeks after Kopocis announced his departure from the agency.

A Virginia federal district judge is letting environmentalists' Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen suit move forward against a coal ash impoundment owned by Dominion Virginia Power, citing for support a recent ruling by a North Carolina federal judge in a similar case that deepened a split among courts over how the CWA applies to groundwater.

EPA is planning to release in April 2020 a final decision on whether to launch a first-time joint “secondary” national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) to reduce environmental harms from nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur oxides (SOx), a standard that some scientists have cautioned might be too difficult to implement.

Power plant operators and environmentalists are at odds over whether EPA has threshold legal authority under section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act to update its standards for methane and other emissions at existing municipal landfills, a precedent-setting dispute that could also determine whether the agency will eventually be able to update its existing power plant greenhouse gas standards.

Environmentalists fear EPA will deny their long-running request to include in a pending revised industrial facility safety rule a mandate for using inherently safer technologies (IST) to reduce risks of disasters at plants, saying agency Administrator Gina McCarthy hinted at the lack of an IST mandate at a recent meeting with advocates.

A new ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit reinforces an earlier finding that Superfund administrative orders on consent (AOCs) signed between EPA and potentially responsible parties (PRPs) prior to 2005 often do not resolve liability on the effective date of the agreement -- giving many PRPs a longer timeline to pursue cost-recovery actions.