On November 20, with no fanfare at all, not even a press release, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued its Draft Guidance: Applying the Supreme Court’s County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund Decision in the Clean...more
11/29/2023
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Water Pollution
A filing in a California federal court indicates that EPA is planning to apply its new Clean Water Act section 401 certification rule to all certification requests, including those that are currently pending and that were...more
The U.S. Supreme Court just issued its long-awaited Sackett decision in which it significantly narrowed the scope of federal jurisdiction over “waters of the U.S.” under the Clean Water Act. Written by Justice Alito (with...more
EPA has proposed to establish “baseline” water quality standards that would apply to all Indian reservation waters where the tribe has not received “treatment as a state” (TAS) authority, the state does not have authority,...more
After the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota’s April 12 ruling, the majority of the United States can no longer implement or enforce the Biden administration’s definition of waters of the United States...more
Yesterday, EPA announced a proposed rule that would revise the agency’s regulations to include a requirement that water quality standards protect reserved tribal treaty rights. This proposal is a major milestone for the...more
Dave Ross and Anna Wildeman provide high-level reactions to the Supreme Court's oral arguments in the Sackett v. EPA case, the latest legal battle in a long-running dispute over the meaning of the phrase "waters of the United...more
On June 1, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a pre-publication version of its proposal to re-write the Clean Water Act Section 401 rule (Certification Proposal), which, if finalized, is expected to have...more
EPA released a pre-publication version of its proposal to re-write the Clean Water Act 401 Certification Rule. The proposed re-write comes after the Northern District of California vacated EPA’s 2020 Certification Rule, which...more
On April 28, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, sitting en banc, overturned its own 30-year-old precedent on the Clean Water Act (CWA), North & South Rivers Watershed Ass’n v. Town of Scituate, 949 F.2d 552 (1st...more
In a move consistent with EPA’s recent uptick in oversight of state regulatory programs, EPA has proposed to establish federal water quality standards (WQS) for human health criteria (HHC) for Washington state. The proposal...more
Developments in water law and policy are highly relevant to our way of life. Drawing from their wealth of experience as defense attorneys, prosecutors, policy makers, and most recently having run the Office of Water at the...more
On March 25, EPA sent a proposed Clean Water Act Section 401 Water Quality Certification rule to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for interagency review. Once cleared by OMB, the proposal will be published in the...more
Dave Ross talks with Radhika Fox as she marks her one year anniversary as EPA’s Assistant Administrator for Water. They discuss how her prior experiences prepared her for the role at EPA and her desire to change the narrative...more
On October 21, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California vacated and remanded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2020 Clean Water Act Section 401 final rule (Certification Rule)....more
On Friday, December 17, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) quietly issued a Q&A document concerning the vacatur of the 2020 Section 401 Certification Rule (2020 Rule). The Q&A confirms EPA’s view that the 1971...more
Landowners and permit applicants received an email notification this week that the Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps) would not be processing their requests for coverage under a variety of Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 404...more
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has initiated two rulemaking actions, both expected to be proposed in early 2022, that could change the way the Clean Water Act (CWA) is administered across the country. ...more
On August 19, EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) issued a joint guidance document concerning implementation of EPA’s 2020 Water Quality Certification Rule. The agencies explain that the guidance applies specifically...more
On August 13, EPA finalized Clean Water Act (Act) Section 304(a) recommended criteria for phosphorus and nitrogen in lakes and reservoirs. The new recommendations incorporate scientific models that states and tribes with...more
There has been a longstanding debate about how to apply the one-year time limit on Clean Water Act Section 401 certification decisions. The D.C. Circuit court in Hoopa Valley Tribe v. FERC, 913 F.3d 1099 (D.C. Cir. 2019)...more