Clean Water Act

 

NWPR & WOTUS

 

New Mexico Ruling Highlights Courts’ Complicated Role In WOTUS Policy. According to InsideEPA, “A new ruling from a federal district court judge in New Mexico remanding and vacating the Trump administration’s definition of waters of the United States (WOTUS), the second such decision vacating the rule, is highlighting the complicated nature of trying to address the scope of the Clean Water Act (CWA) through the courts. Judge Martha Vazquez of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico ruled Sept. 27 in Navajo Nation v. Regan to vacate and remand to EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers the Trump-era WOTUS definition, becoming the latest in a series of federal judges to weigh in on the issue. Her ruling is unlikely to have much of a direct effect on EPA and the Corps’ actions since the Biden administration previously announced it would stop implementation of the Trump-era rule, known as the Navigable Waters Protection Rule (NWPR), following an Aug. 30 decision from a federal judge in Arizona to remand and vacate the rule. The Biden administration’s decision to stop implementing the NWPR avoids the regulatory patchwork scenario that was in place during most of the Trump administration when different courts took different stances on requests for preliminary injunctions of the Obama-era rule.” [InsideEPA, 9/30/21 (=)]

 

Permits & Certifications

 

States And Tribes Urge Judge To Abolish Trump Water Rule. According to Courthouse News Service, “A plan to leave a contested Trump-era rule on the books for more than a year while the Biden administration reviews it will make it easier for industrial plants to pollute waterways and harm the environment, opponents of the rule argued in court Thursday. In July 2020, the Trump administration finalized a rule that limits state and tribal governments’ power to review projects under the Clean Water Act. The ‘Clean Water Act 401 Certification Rule’ narrows what issues state and tribal governments may consider when determining if a project, such as one that involves discharging pollution into a river or stream, will comply with state water quality standards. State or tribal approval is a prerequisite for obtaining a federal permit under the Clean Water Act of 1972. The rule — one the first major overhauls of the water quality certification process in nearly 50 years — affects the permitting and relicensing process for thousands of industrial projects, including natural gas pipelines, hydroelectric plants, wastewater treatment facilities and construction projects near sensitive wetlands. Lawsuits were filed against the rule by 18 states, the District of Columbia, tribal governments and conservation groups. Those suits were later consolidated into one case overseen by Senior U.S. District Judge William Alsup.” [Courthouse News Service, 9/30/21 (=)]

 

Water Pollution

 

Drinking Water

 

Activists Urge State To Fund Replacement Of Lead Drinking Water Pipes. According to The Providence Journal, “A coalition of activist groups are demanding the state devote $500 million in federal and state funds to replace what they estimate to be 100,000 lead drinking water lines in Rhode Island. The groups led by the Childhood Lead Action Project rallied on the State House steps Thursday morning to urge Gov. Dan McKee and other state leaders to address a public health problem that primarily affects young children. ‘It’s time for the state and water authorities to step up and make this happen,’ said Liz Colon, whose middle son was poisoned by lead paint as a baby. Lead is most dangerous to young children whose brains are still developing. Once poisoned, they can suffer long-term consequences that include a lower IQ, reduced attention span and learning difficulties.” [The Providence Journal, 9/30/21 (=)]

 

PFAS

 

EPA Seeks Advisors’ Input On PFAS ‘Grouping’ To Shape Research Strategy. According to InsideEPA, “EPA research officials are asking a key advisory panel to weigh in on staffers’ ongoing effort to divide the thousands of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) into smaller groups for testing, risk assessment and potential regulation under TSCA and other laws, as well as the roles of non-animal test methods in that process. Annette Guiseppi-Elie, acting director of EPA’s Chemical Safety and Sustainability national research program at the Office of Research and Development (ORD), told advisors at a Sept. 29 meeting of the Board of Scientific Counselors’ (BOSC) executive committee that agency scientists are actively researching PFAS grouping, but ‘while there are several potential schemes for categorization out there, there is very much no clear consensus method’ for the chemicals. Whether and how to group PFAS for regulatory action is a key question in the battle over regulators’ approach to the chemical class. Environmentalists have argued that the agency should craft rules that apply equally to all perfluorinated substances, while industry says that strategy would ignore significant differences in various PFAS’ toxicity and physical characteristics and favors regulating either individual chemicals or relatively small ‘subgroups.’” [InsideEPA, 9/30/21 (=)]

 

Environmental Group Sets Its Hopes High For EPA’s Coming PFAS ‘Roadmap’. According to WHYY-Radio, “The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce in the coming weeks a plan to address contamination from PFAS, the class of toxic chemicals that have been detected in water sources nationwide. Known as forever chemicals, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances have been used for decades in household products such as nonstick (Teflon) cookware, flame-retardant fabrics, and some food packaging. PFAS are also found in firefighting foam used at airports and military bases. In March, Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection announced that about one-third of 114 water systems tested for PFAS chemicals were found to contain the substances over 17 months of sampling. Some of the highest PFAS concentrations have been found in Bucks, Montgomery, and Berks counties. And in July, the State of Delaware reached a landmark $50 million settlement with three companies — DuPont, Chemours, and Corteva — over water pollution and related contamination from PFAS, which have been found in drinking water wells, including some wells near Dover Air Force Base. Four New Jersey towns have also sued these companies for selling products containing PFAS, despite knowing they were harmful.” [WHYY-Radio, 9/30/21 (=)]

 

Groundwater

 

AP | Lawsuit: Northrop Grumman Knew Chemical Contaminated Homes. According to Politico, “Defense company Northrop Grumman knew for more than a decade that chemicals from a site it owns near the Springfield-Branson Airport in Missouri were contaminating groundwater in surrounding property, according to a federal lawsuit filed yesterday. The lawsuit claims Northrop Grumman, which is based in Virginia, did not notify residents their groundwater may be contain trichloroethylene, or TCE, which causes cancer. The contamination came to light only after TCE was detected near the Fantastic Caverns tourist site near Springfield, Mo., in 2018, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two Springfield families who said the contamination made their land and businesses ‘worthless’ and led to health problems. Attorneys from Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane & Conway are seeking class-action certification to represent other affected families.” [Politico, 9/30/21 (=)]

 

Water Infrastructure

 

EPA Rethinking Yazoo Flood Project Veto. According to Politico, “EPA has asked a federal court for permission to reconsider a contentious Mississippi flood control project that the Trump administration greenlit last year, despite objections from career scientists. In a filing yesterday, the agency asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to remand a letter Trump political appointees penned last year that found a reworked version of the sprawling Yazoo pump project was no longer subject to a rare veto applied in 2008 under the George W. Bush administration. EPA told the court it needs to review the letter to ensure that it complies with an executive order President Biden signed in January aimed at protecting public health and the environment and restoring science to tackle climate change. The agency’s request is tied to a lawsuit filed months ago by a host of environmental groups on the heels of the Trump administration’s approval of the Yazoo pumps. Earthjustice and other groups sued EPA in the same district court, arguing that the assertion that the veto no longer applied ran afoul of the Clean Water Act (Greenwire, Jan. 12). The lawsuit has been on hold since March at the Biden administration’s request.” [Politico, 9/30/21 (=)]

 

Western Water

 

Calif. Battles Historic Drought With $5.2B, Fish Relocation. According to Politico, “Drought fueled by climate change is transforming California and costing billions of dollars, state officials said yesterday. California is spending $5.2 billion to upgrade water systems, improve water storage and provide water to parched communities as part of a historic $15 billion spending package to address the effects of climate change. ‘Drought is part of California’s natural environment, but is now supercharged by accelerating climate change,’ said state Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot during a virtual meeting with reporters. ‘Record high temperatures both this winter and spring meant about an 80 percent reduction in the amount of snow and water that flows into our reservoirs, from what we anticipated based on a century of historic records.’ … The budget money for drought mitigation includes about $1.3 billion for drinking water and wastewater system upgrades, $200 million to expand water recycling and clean groundwater basins, $180 million for groundwater management, $100 million to improve flows in streams and rivers, and $100 million to upgrade water conveyance in parts of the state affected by sinking ground. California officials yesterday drew a direct link between the drought and climate change. Hotter temperatures accelerated melting snowpack and diminished water supplies throughout the year. The two-year period of 2020 and 2021 was second only to 1976 and 1977 in terms of low rain and snow.” [Politico, 10/1/21 (=)]

 

California Regulators Warn Of Dry Reservoirs, Restrictions. According to Associated Press, “California’s reservoirs are so dry from a historic drought that regulators warned Thursday it’s possible the state’s water agencies won’t get anything from them next year, a frightening possibility that could force mandatory restrictions for residents. California has a system of giant lakes called reservoirs that store water during the state’s rainy and snowy winter months. Most of the water comes from snow that melts in the Sierra Nevada mountains and fills rivers and streams in the spring. Regulators then release the water during the dry summer months for drinking, farming and environmental purposes, including keeping streams cold enough for endangered species of salmon to spawn. This year, unusually hot, dry conditions caused nearly 80% of that water to either evaporate or be absorbed into the parched soil — part of a larger drought that has emptied reservoirs and led to cuts for farmers across the western United States. It caught sate officials by surprise as California now enters the rainy season with reservoirs at their lowest level ever.” [Associated Press, 9/30/21 (=)]

 

State Stopped Key Groundwater Monitoring, Auditor General Says. According to Arizona Public Media, “The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality has failed for years to monitor groundwater for pesticides and other contaminants, according to a new report by the state Auditor General. The report said the agency has not conducted groundwater and soil monitoring of agricultural pesticides since 2013, despite a law requiring it to check for such pollution. And the agency has not conducted other key groundwater monitoring since 2017, according to the report. ‘We do need to do that,’ Misael Cabrera, the department’s director, told Arizona Public Media. ‘We are submitting budget requests this year to get additional resources so we can resume that sampling.’ Cabrera said the department has faced limited resources and chose to prioritize other issues, such as drinking water quality. But he said the department accepts the report’s findings and will implement its recommendations.” [Arizona Public Media, 9/30/21 (=)]

 

Report: ADEQ Has Failed To Monitor Water In Many Categories. According to Daily Independent, “The state agency responsible for protecting the environment has failed to many perform required tasks in monitoring groundwater for pollution — in some cases, for 29 years. In a new report, Auditor General Lindsey Perry said Arizona law requires the Department of Environmental Quality to monitor for agricultural pesticides in groundwater and surrounding soil. She said that is because they can affect human health and threaten to pollute water that’s used for drinking. Yet Perry said the agency hasn’t conducted that required monitoring since 2013 despite it being mandated by state law. Among other key findings is that the agency has not developed or updated water quality standard for eight contaminants, ‘including arsenic and uranium, to help ensure that the water in aquifers is safe and protected.’ Auditors said DEQ has been out of compliance for anywhere from seven to 29 years in developing the standards for those contaminants. Perry said politics may also have played a role in lack of state action.” [Daily Independent, 9/30/21 (=)]

 

California Will Consider Mandatory Water Restrictions If Dryness Continues This Winter. According to Los Angeles Times, “With California’s extreme drought persisting and reservoirs declining to new lows, state officials said they will consider imposing mandatory water restrictions if dryness continues this winter. Gov. Gavin Newsom called on Californians in July to voluntarily reduce water use by 15%, saying state water regulators would track progress toward that target and decide whether additional measures would be necessary. Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said Thursday that bigger steps may be needed if the drought doesn’t ease this winter, and turning to statewide mandatory conservation measures will be an option. ‘We’re going to be watching very closely here in the coming couple few months how that voluntary water conservation goes,’ Crowfoot said in a call with reporters. ‘We’ve achieved 16% water-use reduction since the last drought. So we know that Californians can step up. But the governor has been clear that we need to consider additional actions, and mandatory restrictions, you know, need to be on the table here as, if and when the drought worsens.’” [Los Angeles Times, 9/30/21 (=)]

 

Op-Ed: Happy New Water Year — Californians Have To Face Some Difficult Wet Season Truths. According to an op-ed by PETER GLEICK in Los Angeles Times, “Happy New Water Year. For those of us who work on California water challenges, the start of the new year isn’t Jan. 1; it’s Oct. 1, the official beginning of the state’s wet season. This is the time of year we start to look out over the Pacific for the storms we hope will bring life-giving precipitation, replenishing our rivers and streams, coating our mountains with snow, refilling our reservoirs and recharging our soils, forests, wetlands and groundwater. And while we hope for a good water year, we also hope for moderation in the face of ever-worsening climate change, for storms that don’t overwhelm our levees, flood our cities and towns, or wash away our farms and homes. We’re looking ahead with no small amount of worry. The past two years have been bad: years of drought, heat, fire and ecological collapse. A repeat of the past two years would be catastrophic. Every drought is different, but with climate change upping the ante, the current drought has been one for the record books. We’ve seen rapidly disappearing snow that simply evaporated off the mountains rather than producing runoff, the death of native salmon when the temperatures in our rivers rose to lethal levels, parched farms, extreme fires that even now are sweeping through our dry forests, expanses of exposed mud at the bottom of our emptying reservoirs, and the nonstop overdraft of groundwater sucked up by stronger and stronger pumps from deeper and deeper wells, causing Central Valley communities on the frontlines to lose access to safe and affordable drinking water.” [Los Angeles Times, 9/30/21 (+)]

 

Flooding

 

Flood Insurance Revamp Starts Today, Despite Hill Opposition. According to Politico, “The Biden administration brushed aside calls from Capitol Hill to delay a dramatic new pricing structure for federal flood insurance even as two leading Senate opponents vowed to keep trying to block changes to the program. The Federal Emergency Management Agency today is launching the largest overhaul of the National Flood Insurance Program since the NFIP’s creation in 1968. The makeover comes despite concerns from some coastal lawmakers that insurance premiums will soar for some residents of flood-prone areas. FEMA’s new method for calculating insurance premiums will make individual rates reflect more accurately each property’s flood risk — a move environmentalists applaud because they say it will deter development in flood-prone areas. The new calculations will cause premiums to increase sharply for about 200,000 of the 5 million people who buy coverage through the NFIP, while premiums will go down for 1.2 million policyholders who have been paying too much. The remaining 3.6 million policyholders will see moderate rate increases under the restructuring program, known as Risk Rating 2.0. Two senators vowed yesterday to push legislation to delay Risk Rating 2.0, though they acknowledged the difficulty they face.” [Politico, 10/1/21 (=)]

 

FEMA’s New Flood Insurance Plan Is Drawing The Battle Lines Over Climate Adaptation. According to Grist, “On Friday the Federal Emergency Management Administration, or FEMA, will roll out sweeping changes to a government program that provides flood insurance to some three million American households. These changes will sharply raise the cost of flood insurance for many high-value homes in coastal states like Florida, sending dramatic new signals to current and potential waterfront homeowners about the risks they face from extreme weather fueled by climate change. The rollout of this new system, known as Risk Rating 2.0, has triggered one of the most contentious climate adaptation debates in recent memory. There is no doubt on either side that the changes reflect a more accurate assessment of flood risk, but a number of politicians from both parties have petitioned FEMA to delay the rollout, hoping to protect their constituents from a decrease in property values that may accompany higher insurance premiums. The result has been yet another skirmish in a debate that will become central to climate policy in the United States: How many of the private risks generated by climate change will be shouldered at public expense?” [Grist, 10/1/21 (+)]

 

The Price Of Living Near The Shore Is Already High. It’s About To Go Through The Roof. According to The Washington Post, “When Brian and Susan Gary settled down on this exclusive island spit a decade ago, climate scientists were already sounding an alarm: Global temperatures were warming, sea levels were rising and damaging floodwaters were creeping ever closer to homes. The Garys had joined 8 million Americans who moved to counties along the U.S. coast between 2000 and 2017, lured by the sun, the sea and heavily subsidized government flood insurance that made the cost of protecting their homes much cheaper than the risk of living in a flood zone near a vast body of water. But a reckoning is coming. On Friday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will incorporate climate risk into the cost of flood insurance for the first time, dramatically increasing the price for some new home buyers. Next April, most current policyholders will see their premiums go up and continue to rise by 18 percent per year for the next 20 years. The price hike under a new assessment, Risk Rating 2.0, will more accurately reflect the threat of flooding in a changing climate, federal officials say. Most homeowners will see modest increases starting at $120 per year in addition to what they already pay, and a few will see their insurance costs decrease. But wealthy customers with high-value homes will see their costs skyrocket by as much as $14,400 for one year. About 3,200 property owners, mostly in Florida, Texas, New Jersey and New York fall in that category.” [The Washington Post, 9/30/21 (=)]

 

Op-Ed: Let’s Choose Nature Over Higher Flood Walls. According to an op-ed by Doug Myers in Bay Journal, “How we adapt our built infrastructure to the challenge of sea level rise is at the forefront of climate change discussions, especially in the Chesapeake Bay region. A recent Bay Journal article, though, Can makeover save Annapolis City Dock from sea level rise?, left out several major ways to avoid the mistakes of the past. To do so, we must consider remaking flood-prone areas in the Bay region with natural solutions that will mitigate climate change and benefit the environment. The article focused on one plan that calls for raising the walkways around the dock, building a new flood wall and installing some sort of transparent or retractable sea wall. Pumps would also be needed to remove runoff trapped behind the new sea wall. The total cost? At least $50 million. The article notes that the money could come from the state or by raising taxes. But no one is quite sure how Annapolis or Anne Arundel County would pay for such an expense. It also didn’t explore whether the bulk of the taxpaying public, who don’t live in flood-prone areas, would support using these funds to preserve the current look of the waterfront.” [Bay Journal, 9/30/21 (+)]

 

Misc. Waterways

 

The Great Lakes See The Impact Of Climate Change: "The Highs Are Getting Higher And The Lows Are Getting Lower". According to CBS, “More intense storms, fueled by climate change, are battering shorelines and cities throughout the Great Lakes, pulling the land right out from under some homes. ‘Cities like Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, they all have to adapt to this,’ said Melissa Scanlan, director of the Center for Water Policy at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Milwaukee sits on Lake Michigan, which has swung from record-low water levels in 2013 to record highs the past few years. ‘The highs are getting higher and the lows are getting lower,’ Scanlan said. ‘I’m most concerned about flooding and sewage contaminating the drinking water supply for millions of people.’ Sewage can get dumped into Lake Michigan when intense storms overwhelm Milwaukee’s stormwater systems. The area’s sewerage district is replacing concrete channels built in the 1960s with more natural creeks to try to prevent future flooding. Marquette, Michigan, spent $3 million to rebuild a shattered stretch of road 300 feet away from its increasingly unpredictable neighbor, Lake Superior. ‘Lake erosion really got the best of it,’ said Dennis Stachewicz, who is planning director for the city. ‘Ultimately it failed because nature caught up with us.’” [CBS, 9/30/21 (+)]

 

 

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