In efforts to curb pollution from agricultural operations, is RCRA the new Clean Water Act?

Agriculture is a major source of pollution for a number of our nation’s impaired waters, including the Chesapeake Bay.  For that reason, government agencies and environmental organizations have targeted agricultural operations as part of their clean water enforcement initiatives.  However, … Continue reading

Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board declines to follow the Sixth Circuit’s lead on air emissions aggregation

Last week, in an appeal filed by an environmental organization, the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) rejected an attempt by the operator of a gas processing plant and several compressor stations (connected to the plant via pipelines) to preclude evidence of the “functional relationship” between the … Continue reading

Third Circuit decision on Rule 68 “offers of judgment” may add a page to the defense bar’s environmental citizen suit playbook

Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued an opinion that may encourage defendants in environmental citizen suits to make greater use of the “offer of judgment” tool fashioned by Rule 68 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which … Continue reading

Moving Mountains, Part 2: Fourth Circuit greenlights mountaintop removal mining project

Earlier this month, I reported on a blow that the D.C. Circuit dealt mountaintop removal mining in Mingo Logan Coal Co. v. EPA, No. 12-5150 (D.C. Cir.).  Last week, the Fourth Circuit helped the industry get back up on its … Continue reading

No tardy slips: First Circuit declines to compel EPA to act on long-pending NPDES permit renewal applications

In a two-page judgment entered earlier this month whose brevity belies its potential significance, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit denied a petition for a writ of mandamus submitted by environmental groups seeking to compel EPA to take … Continue reading

Slick attempts to circumvent statute of limitations fail to gain traction with D.C. district court in oil dispersants case

Last week, in Alaska Cmty. Action on Toxics, et al. v. EPA, Civ. A. No. 12-1299 (D.D.C., May 7, 2013), the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed claims by environmental groups challenging EPA’s failure to identify the … Continue reading

Septic Saga: PADEP proposes policy regarding onlot sewage systems in special protection watersheds

In response to an adjudication issued by the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) in late 2011, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) has issued a proposed policy that, if finalized, would guide its review of sewage facilities planning modules proposing the use … Continue reading

Clearing the air: settlement reached in Pennsylvania PM2.5 litigation

Late in March, EPA lodged a consent decree with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that brings the agency one step closer to settling a lawsuit with local environmental group Clean Air Council and brings the Pittsburgh … Continue reading

Moving mountains: D.C. Circuit deals a blow to mountaintop removal mining

A little over a year ago, after the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia concluded that EPA had exceeded its statutory authority when it invoked section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act to withdraw the specifications of certain … Continue reading

Ninth Circuit touches novel CWA and RCRA claims with a forty-foot pole

Last month, an environmental organization testing the bounds of the reach of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) ran into a brick wall wooden pole when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the … Continue reading