Clean Water Act  & WOTUS

 

EPA Chief In ND Visit Vows New Waters Of The US Definition To 'Stand The Test Of Time'. According to Williston Herald, “Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler during his visit to Bismarck on Monday, Oct. 7, heard plenty of praise for his effort to replace the 2015 Waters of the U.S. rule with a ‘common-sense’ definition. Wheeler and U.S. Sens. John Hoeven, R-N.D., and Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., led a discussion involving 30 state, industry and agriculture leaders about replacing the Obama-era rule criticized as federal overreach of control over small waterways, especially wetlands or prairie potholes, which are prevalent on North Dakota’s landscape. Environmental groups have criticized the Trump administration’s action, arguing that polluted smaller waters could impact the quality of larger waterways, damaging the environment and impacting safe drinking water. Wheeler called the 2015 rule ‘the biggest power grab on the environmental side in Washington, D.C., probably in the history of environmental regulations.’ ‘Just to show you how all-encompassing it was, they felt the need in 2015 to put into the regulatory text that puddles were not waters of the U.S.,’ Wheeler said. ‘And if you have a definition that is so encompassing that you have to in regulatory text exclude puddles, that should have been a telltale sign that their definition was too broad.’” [Williston Herald, 10/8/19 (=)]

 

Judges Won't Pause Obama WOTUS Suit, But They May Nix Case. According to E&E News, “A federal appeals court has declined a request to halt a lawsuit over the Obama administration’s Clean Water Rule. But a pair of judges for the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said they ‘would like to investigate further’ whether they should drop the case in light of the Trump administration’s repeal and eventual replacement of the 2015 Waters of the U.S., or WOTUS, rule. Judges Scott Matheson and Gregory Phillips, both Obama appointees, handed down their order yesterday evening. The challengers, a group composed of business interests and the state of Oklahoma, last week asked the court to pause the litigation in anticipation of the repeal rule’s publication in the Federal Register, which would start the clock on a fresh round of legal challenges over which wetlands and waterways are protected under the Clean Water Act. Lawsuits over the Obama-era rule are still live in several federal courts, and it is unclear how an expected flood of courtroom action over the Trump repeal will affect the status of the existing WOTUS cases. At least one venue — the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida — has opted to hold its case in abeyance. Municipal water managers who had challenged the Obama rule asked the judge to eventually rule on the merits of the dispute (Greenwire, Sept. 24). Parties in the 10th Circuit case have until Oct. 21 to weigh in on whether the court should dismiss the case.” [E&E News, 10/8/19 (=)]

 

Toxic Algae

 

Algae Panel Sets ‘Roadmap’ For Florida Lawmakers. According to WFOR-TV, “A document discussed by the state’s Blue-Green Algae Task Force should be viewed, members said, as a broad roadmap for lawmakers with the 2020 legislative session less than 100 days away. And task force members, meeting in Gainesville to further edit the document, said they will look in future meetings beyond Lake Okeechobee and nearby waterways that have been plagued by toxic algae. Member Wendy Graham, director of the Water Institute at the University of Florida, said it is important to reassure people ‘we haven’t forgotten about ground waters and springs and that sort of thing, coastal systems.’ Member James Sullivan, executive director of Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch, added that the document should be clearer that the focus isn’t exclusively Lake Okeechobee and the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries. ‘It’s not just Lake Okeechobee,’ Sullivan said. Thomas Frazer, Florida’s chief science officer, said the document addresses waters beyond the South Florida ecosystems, but agreed to highlight a statewide focus in a brief introduction. Overall, Frazer said the document is aimed at providing ‘high-level, but informative recommendations’ for lawmakers, who begin the 60-day legislative session on Jan. 14, and it shouldn’t be viewed as the panel’s final product. ‘We fully intended to delve into a broad suite of related topics moving down the road and expect we will have many more recommendations,’ Frazer said. ‘I want to let people rest their mind a little bit that this is not the final product from this body.’” [WFOR-TV, 10/8/19 (=)]

 

PFAS

 

Lawyer: 'We Needed To Sound The Alarm' On PFAS Health Risks. According to E&E News, “A call from a West Virginia farmer about dying cows marked a turning point in a corporate lawyer’s career and the start of a decadeslong crusade against an unregulated chemical. Rob Bilott, a partner at the law firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP in Cincinnati, got a phone call in 1998 from Wilbur Earl Tennant, who believed cows on his property in Parkersburg, W.Va., were perishing due to drinking from a stream that was contaminated by chemicals from a neighboring landfill owned by DuPont Co. Tennant asked Bilott for help. Bilott’s grandmother referred Tennant, who was getting no help from the state or EPA to test the water despite hundreds of his cows dying, to her grandson. Bilott worked not as an environmental lawyer but as an attorney representing corporations like the one Tennant wanted held accountable. Still, he took the case. Bilott initially thought the case would be a simple issue involving company permits. However, after gaining access to thousands of documents from the company, he realized he was dealing with an unregulated chemical called perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, used in making Teflon and other household products. PFOA is now one of the most studied chemicals in a class known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. The chemicals have been linked to a range of health problems, including birth defects and cancer.” [E&E News, 10/8/19 (=)]

 

AP | Wis. Survey Finds PFAS Contamination In Creeks, Rivers. According to E&E News, “Wisconsin environmental officials say chemicals known as PFAS have contaminated creeks in Dane and Monroe counties as well as portions of the Mississippi, Wisconsin and Menominee rivers. The Department of Natural Resources sampled the five bodies of water this summer because they’re near known or suspected PFAS contamination sites such as military bases. The department said yesterday that the first round of test results show elevated levels of contamination in Starkweather Creek in Dane County and Silver and Suukjak Sep Creek in Monroe County. The department found lower levels of contamination in the Mississippi River between Minneapolis and La Crosse, the Wisconsin River between Rhinelander and Nekoosa and the Menominee River near Marinette. PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are man-made chemicals used in a variety of nonstick products such as firefighting foam.” [E&E News, 10/8/19 (=)]

 

PFAS Assessments Delayed. According to Politico, “EPA assessments of the health risks of five PFAS chemicals, including those commonly found in firefighting foam and carpets, have been delayed by roughly four months, according to a document posted yesterday by the Integrated Risk Assessment Program, the EPA division charged with the work. Rather than releasing draft toxicity values before the end of the year, as previously anticipated, the program now projects those drafts will be made public in the first quarter of 2020.” [Politico, 10/9/19 (=)]

 

North Carolina Eyes Applying EPA PFAS Water Advisory To Groundwater. According to Inside EPA, “North Carolina regulators are proposing the state adopt EPA’s health advisory for two well-known per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) chemicals as a state groundwater standard and are asking the state’s science advisors for advice on the proposal, according to a presentation at the advisors’ most recent meeting. If the levels are adopted by North Carolina, they would mirror EPA’s proposed cleanup goal for groundwater for the two chemicals -- perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) -- which matches the agency’s drinking water health advisory of 70 parts per trillion (ppt) for the two chemicals. North Carolina’s action joins a growing number of states that have proposed or finalized groundwater cleanup levels for certain PFAS -- the majority of which have been set at 70 ppt or stricter. The move may give additional reinforcement to EPA’s decision to propose 70 ppt as its interim groundwater level after the agency effectively rejected a push by the Defense Department (DOD) -- which faces significant PFAS cleanup liability -- from setting less-stringent groundwater levels. DOD at times has also fought following state groundwater levels. The Groundwater and Waste Management Committee of North Carolina’s Environmental Management Commission within the state environmental agency is asking the state Secretaries’ Science Advisory Board (SAB) to review and comment on the state agency’s recommendation to use the EPA’s 2016 health advisory values for PFOA and” [Inside EPA, 10/8/19 (=)]

 

Plastic Pollution

 

AP | Legos Lying Around? Toymaker Tests Way To Recycle Bricks. According to E&E News, “Lego is looking to keep its plastic bricks out of the trash. The Danish toymaker is testing a way for customers to ship their unwanted bricks back and get them into the hands of other kids. It said today that customers in the U.S. can print out a mailing label on its site, dump their used Lego bricks in a box and ship them off for free. Lego said the pieces will be cleaned, put in a box and given to Teach for America, a nonprofit that will donate them to classrooms across the United States. Some bricks will be also sent to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston for their after-school programs. Lego said if the test is successful, it may expand the program beyond the U.S. next year. The company typically tells its customers to keep their bricks or pass them on to others. But some have asked for another way to donate them, said Tim Brooks, Lego’s vice president of environmental responsibility. Lego, like other big brands, is looking to please customers worried about plastic’s impact on the environment. Plastic doesn’t disintegrate but instead can break down into tiny pieces and be eaten by birds or other wildlife, endangering their health. It is also working to find other materials for its colorful bricks. But finding one as durable as plastic has been a challenge, Brooks said. Last year, however, it began making Lego trees and bushes out of sugar cane.” [E&E News, 10/8/19 (=)]

 

Misc. Waterways

 

AP | Trout Found In Adirondack Lake Once Soured By Acid Rain. According to E&E News, “A reproducing population of brook trout has been discovered in a tiny lake in the Adirondack High Peaks Wilderness for the first time since the lake was declared fishless due to acid rain 32 years ago, New York state officials said. Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos said yesterday the breeding population of trout in the 38-acre Lake Colden demonstrates the effectiveness of clean air regulations including New York’s 1984 Acid Deposition Control Act and amendments to the U.S. Clean Air Act requiring federal controls of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions. The DEC said it’s the first time a nonstocked, sustaining fish population has been recorded in a high-elevation Adirondack lake previously determined unable to support fish due to acid rain impacts. Acid rain results when emissions from power plants, motor vehicles and other fossil fuel combustion sources mix with moisture in the air to produce sulfuric and nitric acid. In the 1960s, scientists determined it was causing tree die-offs in higher elevations of the Catskills and Adirondacks and had made hundreds of lakes and streams too acidic to support fish. Lake Colden, surrounded by some of the state’s tallest peaks, is one of 52 Adirondack waterways where samples have been collected and analyzed several times a year since 1992. Monitoring has shown improving water quality in recent years, according to DEC.” [E&E News, 10/8/19 (=)]

 

 

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