Clean Water Act & WOTUS

 

Kansas City Is The Place To Be. According to Politico, “Today and Thursday are the days to share for everyone with opinions on the Trump administration’s proposal to vastly scale back the number of streams and wetlands receiving federal protection under the Clean Water Act. More than 100 speakers are on the agenda for EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers’ one public hearing on the proposal in Kansas City, Kan. The location has history: Former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy headed to Kansas City, too, in 2014 when the Obama administration’s proposed rule on the same topic was under fierce fire from farmers, including in a spoof video by the Missouri Farm Bureau featuring a farmer’s family attempting to float a boat in a dry ditch to an adaptation of the ‘Frozen’ theme song. This go-around, expect a major push from opponents of the Trump rule, ranging from environmentalists to sportsmen to craft brewers.” [Politico, 2/27/19 (=)]

 

PFAS

 

Industry Emphasizes Uncertain Science To Fight Strict PFAS Limits. According to Inside EPA, “Industry advocates are welcoming EPA’s recently released action plan to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), saying it provides an opportunity to consider uncertain science in any future drinking water or other regulations, which some say could result in weaker limits than what the agency has previously offered. ‘The Action Plan lays out many actions to improve our scientific understanding of PFAS and to assist states and communities responding to PFAS challenges,’ the Responsible Science Policy Coalition (RSPC), a group that includes both manufacturers and consumers of the chemicals, said in a statement. Still, other industry officials are warning that regardless of the stringency of any limit EPA sets, should the agency move forward with plans to list any PFAS as hazardous substances under the Superfund law, it will likely drive significant new cost recovery litigation. ‘Statutory claims involving PFAS are likely to proliferate in both state and federal courts. This is especially so if PFAS are designated as hazardous substances under state cleanup laws or the federal Superfund statute(s),’ Marten Law policy adviser Nathan Frey and senior associate Jennifer Hammitt write in a recent review of EPA’s plan.” [Inside EPA, 2/26/19 (=)]

 

Video Shows Security Guard Shove Reporter Out Of Building. According to E&E News, “Security footage shows an EPA security guard push an Associated Press reporter out of the agency’s headquarters last year. The video, obtained by E&E News under the Freedom of Information Act, shows AP reporter Ellen Knickmeyer inside the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building for roughly five minutes on May 22, 2018, before a female guard pushes her out with two hands on her shoulders. Knickmeyer was trying that morning to cover then-Administrator Scott Pruitt’s high-profile summit on the agency’s plans to confront PFAS — for per- or polyfluoroalkyl — chemicals found in drinking water. But Knickmeyer wasn’t part of a small group of journalists EPA invited for a select portion of the event. E&E News and CNN reporters also went to the building that morning and were barred from entering. EPA claimed at the time the agency had enough room at the summit to accommodate only 10 news outlets. Asked for comment on the video, an AP spokeswoman confirmed to E&E News that Knickmeyer is in the video and referred to the newswire’s story on the day’s events. AP Executive Editor Sally Buzbee said at the time EPA’s selective blocking of certain news organizations from covering the summit was ‘a direct threat to the public’s right to know about what is happening inside their government.’” [E&E News, 2/26/19 (=)]

 

Mich. Finds PFAS In Drinking Water Systems. According to E&E News, “More than 60 drinking water systems in Michigan sampled last year had measurable levels of a class of long-lasting and highly toxic chemicals linked to cancer and a variety of other illnesses, state officials said yesterday. The Department of Environmental Quality released data from a statewide effort to determine the extent of drinking water contamination from perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known collectively as PFAS, which increasingly have turned up in public water supplies and private wells around the U.S. They are used in firefighting foam, nonstick pots and pans, water-repellent clothing and many other household and personal items. The Michigan agency said it oversaw sampling of 1,114 public water systems and 17 operated by tribes. Also tested were supplies at 461 schools and 168 child care and Head Start providers that operate their own wells. Only two — the city of Parchment and Robinson Elementary School near Grand Haven — had PFAS levels above 70 parts per trillion (ppt), that point at which the state requires cleanups of groundwater used for drinking. The threshold is based on a nonbinding EPA health advisory that critics, including environmental advocates and some members of Congress, consider weak.” [E&E News, 2/26/19 (=)]

 

Misc. Waterways

 

Ariz. Tribe Back In Favor Of Drought Plan. According to E&E News, “An Arizona tribe says it is back in favor of a drought plan for the Colorado River after receiving assurances that legislation it opposes will not become law. The announcement by Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis clears a significant hurdle for the plan to conserve water from the drought-starved river that supplies 40 million people in the West. Lewis said tribal leaders met last week with key lawmakers and are now satisfied that the legislation is dead. The tribe plays a central role in the drought plan, but Lewis said earlier this month that it would back out if lawmakers moved forward with a bill he says would undermine its rights to water from the Gila River. ‘This was an unfortunate chapter in this historic effort, but we will now do all we can to put this in the rear view mirror, and move forward together,’ Lewis said in a statement. Republican House Speaker Rusty Bowers had pushed to alter the state’s five-year ‘use it or lose it’ water rights law, which he said was necessary to protect farmers in eastern Arizona whose livelihood is threatened because they fallowed their fields at some point in the past.” [E&E News, 2/26/19 (=)]

 

 

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