- Posts by Melissa S. Brown
PartnerSince 2014, Melissa S. Brown has developed a robust environmental law practice in which she assists businesses on a wide variety of environmental issues. Clients regularly rely on her to provide counsel on complying with federal and ...
Reviews the U.S. EPA’s new 2025 priorities, referred to as the Five Pillars that constitute Powering the Great American Comeback Initiative. Also summarizes the issues behind the U.S. Supreme Court’s first environmental cases of 2025.
Provides tips for building a PFAS defense strategy, including proactive steps to creating a successful plan.
Summarizes USEPA PFAS regulatory activities from December 2024 and January 2025.
Briefly describes USEPA’s rationale for its proposal to add over 100 additional PFAS to the Toxics Release Inventory.
Summarizes U.S. EPA’s and Illinois Pollution Control Board’s major legislative, regulatory, and policy updates to PFAS in first half of 2024.
Illinois Supreme Court: no rights of action exist/implied in state’s Environmental Protection Act or its LUST (leaking underground storage tank) Program. Made clear distinction between legal remedies to protect environment and ones for recovery from personal injuries when those laws violated.
Announces U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright, which overturns a long-standing doctrine of deferring to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes.
Summarizes announcement by Illinois Pollution Control Board of its proposed amendments to the groundwater quality standards.
U.S. EPA proposes new National Primary Drinking Water Regulation and changes to the Waters of the United States and National Ambient Air Quality Standards
On March 25, 2020, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“USEPA”) published on its website a draft memorandum entitled “Interpretation of ‘Begin Actual Construction’ Under the New Source Review Preconstruction Permitting Regulations” (“draft memorandum”). The draft memorandum announces that USEPA is adopting a revised interpretation of “begin actual construction” that will allow a source owner or operator to undertake significantly more physical on-site activities prior to obtaining a construction permit than previously allowed ...
On December 4, 2019, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) published in the Federal Register an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking titled “Addition of Certain Per-and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances; Community Right-to-Know Toxic Chemical Release Reporting.” 84 Fed. Reg. 66369. USEPA is currently considering a rule proposal to add certain polyfluroroalkyl substances (PFAS) to the list of toxic chemicals subject to reporting under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (Right-to-Know Act) and the Pollution Prevention Act. This ...
On June 20, 2019, the Supreme Court of Illinois affirmed an appellate court’s ruling on an Illinois Pollution Control Board (“Board”) decision involving groundwater monitoring at clean construction or demolition debris fill sites, in The County of Will v. The Pollution Control Board, 2019 IL 122798, Case Nos. 122798, 122813. The case concerned the Board’s adoption of regulations governing the use of clean construction or demolition debris (“CCDD”) and uncontaminated soil (“US”) as fill material at CCDD fill operations.
CCDD is uncontaminated broken concrete ...
