Focus

Federal court rejects continued application of Trump-era water quality review rule pending adoption of alternative regulation

Courthouse News Service – October 22

Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Thursday declined the Biden administration’s request to leave a contested Trump-era Clean Water Act rule in place while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) develops a replacement regulation. The Court found that letting the rule remain in effect until the Biden administration replaces it in spring 2023 could cause long-lasting environmental harm. A coalition of states, tribal governments, and conservation groups sued to block the “Clean Water Act 401 Certification Rule,” which narrowed the issues that state and tribal governments may consider when determining if a project will comply with state water quality standards. Under the rule, which took effect in September 2020, states could no longer consider a project’s impact on air emissions and road traffic congestion, limiting the scope of review to water quality alone.

News

EPA to list PFAS chemicals as hazardous wastes under RCRA

Yahoo! Finance – October 26

The U.S. EPA will move forward with a nationally significant rule to change how per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are managed and cleaned up under federal law. The move was signaled in a letter on Tuesday from EPA to New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, responding to a June petition by the governor. In the letter EPA detailed its intention to list several PFAS chemicals as hazardous constituents under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The EPA will also propose a second rule to clarify broadly that states may require clean-up of any waste that meets the RCRA statutory definition of a hazardous waste.

Biden administration moves to undo two Endangered Species Act rollbacks

The Hill – October 26

The Biden administration will move to rescind two Trump-era rollbacks of protections for endangered species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced on Tuesday. The first of the two rules would have narrowed the definition of “habitat” to pertain only to those areas that can currently support a species. Environmental groups pushed back on the move at the time, noting that it would exclude areas that could potentially support species in the future. The second rule would have barred FWS from granting critical habit protections to an area if it were demonstrated that the costs of the protections are outweighed by benefits of denying them.

Conservation groups sue U.S. Forest Service over gold exploration

Courthouse News Service – October 21

Four conservation groups filed a lawsuit in federal court against the U.S. Forest Service on Thursday in an effort to stop an exploratory gold drilling operation in California’s Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. The Forest Service had approved the operation in September. According to the plaintiffs, the mining exploration may have a devastating effect on the local habitat, which is home to the bi-state sage grouse, an iconic bird, famous for its mating dances, whose population has dwindled in recent years. Environmentalists also worry the drilling will impact water that feeds into the Owens River, which supplies water for Los Angeles.

Los Angeles receives loan from EPA to finance San Fernando Basin water recycling project

Los Angeles Daily News – October 26

Los Angeles sanitation officials received a $224 million loan from the U.S. EPA to help finance a project to purify wastewater and replenish the San Fernando Basin amid a historic drought, officials said on Tuesday. The loan will help fund the city’s Donald C. Tillman Advanced Water Purification Facility, which will purify 15.5 million gallons of the city’s wastewater every day to replenish the San Fernando Basin and its aquifers.

San Diego County plan aims to slash carbon emissions to net zero by 2035

The San Diego Union-Tribune – October 27

In a report released on Wednesday, San Diego County outlines strategies for drastically cutting carbon emissions across the region. The plan is the first step of the county’s “Regional Decarbonization Framework,” which aims to reach ‘net zero’ carbon emissions by 2035. The framework complements recent efforts to overhaul the county’s Climate Action Plan, but, unlike that document, the decarbonization framework covers the entire county and will be developed in conjunction with cities, school districts, and local agencies, instead of focusing solely on unincorporated areas. The report will go to a public hearing on November 17 and to the Board of Supervisors for approval around February.