Summarizes the Illinois Pollution Control Board’s new Time-Limited Water Quality Standard for chloride
Summarizes key environmental justice aims of 2021 Executive Order on Climate Crisis: philosophy, new Councils, added enforcement duties and emphases
Illinois’ EPA issued health advisories for PFAS. U.S. EPA under Biden plans to prioritize regulating PFAS
Cases decided by federal courts in Illinois and the Seventh Circuit have held that groundwater does not implicate the CWA, even if there exists a hydrological connection between groundwater and navigable waters. In Vill. of Oconomowoc Lake v. Dayton Hudson Corp., 24 F.3d 962, 965 (7th Cir. 1994), the Seventh Circuit opined that “we are confident that the statute Congress enacted excludes some waters, and groundwaters are a logical candidate.” In a more recent case involving seeps from unlined coal ash pits at a retired coal-fired power plant, which allegedly migrated through ...
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 ...
Summary of County of Maui, Hawaii v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, et al.
No. 18-260, Argued 1/6/2019, Decided 4/23/2020)
Petitioner, County of Maui (“Maui”), operates a wastewater reclamation facility that partially treats water from the surrounding area, then releases roughly 4 million gallons of treated water into the ground through four wells. The effluent travels through ground water for one-half mile to the Pacific Ocean.
In 2012, environmental groups sued under the citizen suit provisions of the Clean Water Act (“Act”), alleging that Maui was “discharge[ing]” a ...
The Hazardous Waste Generator Improvements Rule (GIR), which was finalized by USEPA in 2016, is a significant reorganization of the regulations applicable to hazardous waste generators. 81 Fed. Reg. 85732 (Nov. 28, 2016). With the GIR, USEPA moved all of the RCRA generator provisions into one section – 40 C.F.R. Part 262. The GIR also included several substantive changes to the hazardous waste generator rules which were more stringent than current RCRA generator regulations and, therefore, must be adopted by states with authorized RCRA programs.
The “more stringent than” ...