On April 28, 2025, EPA Administrator Zeldin issued the Agency’s most comprehensive statement since Trump’s inauguration regarding how EPA plans to address PFAS compounds under a variety of ongoing regulatory programs (“EPA...more
5/5/2025
/ Clean Water Act ,
Drinking Water ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Hazardous Substances ,
PFAS ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Risk Assessment ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Site Remediation ,
Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)
On March 12, 2025, EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (“OECA”) issued a memo outlining new national enforcement and compliance initiatives (“NECIs”). ...more
3/18/2025
/ Climate Change ,
Coal ,
Coal Industry ,
Energy Sector ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Executive Orders ,
PFAS ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Trump Administration
Since January 20, 2025, the Trump Administration has implemented numerous changes to federal environmental justice (“EJ”) initiatives which are expected to result in reduced permitting and regulatory burdens. While the...more
3/14/2025
/ Clean Energy ,
Climate Change ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Executive Orders ,
Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) ,
NEPA ,
Regulatory Reform ,
State and Local Government ,
Trump Administration
In the absence of enforceable federal standards for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”) in soil, several states have started the process of regulating PFAS in soil themselves. These regulations have implications for...more
2/4/2025
/ Contamination ,
Due Diligence ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Environmental Site Assessment ,
Hazardous Substances ,
PFAS ,
Public Health ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Remediation ,
Site Remediation ,
State and Local Government
In the absence of federal cleanup standards for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”) in groundwater, several states have started the process of regulating PFAS in groundwater themselves. As a result, states have...more
11/27/2024
/ Contamination ,
Discharge of Pollutants ,
Drinking Water ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Groundwater ,
Hazardous Substances ,
PFAS ,
Public Health ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
State and Local Government ,
Toxic Chemicals ,
Water Quality
In the absence of federal cleanup standards for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”) in groundwater, several states have started the process of regulating PFAS in groundwater themselves. As a result, states have...more
On April 19, 2024, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) announced that it is designating perfluorooctanoic acid (“PFOA”) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (“PFOS”) as Hazardous Substances under the...more
4/29/2024
/ CERCLA ,
Contamination ,
Department of Transportation (DOT) ,
Discharge of Pollutants ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Final Rules ,
Hazardous Substances ,
Manufacturers ,
PFAS ,
Potentially Responsible Party (PRP) ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Site Remediation ,
Toxic Chemicals ,
Wastewater
On April 10, 2024, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) issued its long-anticipated National Primary Drinking Water Regulation (“NPDWR”) establishing Maximum Contaminant Levels (“MCLs”) for certain PFAS...more
In the absence of comprehensive federal regulation of PFAS in food packaging, states are dishing out their own laws. Thus far, twelve states have enacted laws addressing PFAS substances in food containers and packaging...more
As discussed in more detail in BCLP’s 2023 federal recap client alert, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”) were a major focus for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) in 2023, and 2024 will...more
As expected, 2023 was an expansive year for the regulation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”) at the federal level. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) took (or at least proposed)...more
2/8/2024
/ CERCLA ,
Clean Water Act ,
Contaminated Properties ,
Contamination ,
Drinking Water ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Hazardous Substances ,
PFAS ,
Public Health ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Toxic Chemicals ,
Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) ,
Water Supplies
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) started the new year by finalizing two rules involving per- or polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (“TSCA”) and the Toxic...more
In the absence of an enforceable federal drinking water standard for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”) – for the time being anyway - many states have regulated PFAS compounds in drinking water. The result is a...more
1/17/2024
/ Contamination ,
Data Collection ,
Drinking Water ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Final Rules ,
Hazardous Substances ,
PFAS ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Comment ,
Regulatory Standards ,
State Regulators ,
Toxic Chemicals ,
Water Supplies
Numerous states have either enacted or proposed regulations regarding per- or polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”) present in Class B Aqueous Film-Forming Foams (“AFFF”) used for firefighting, or present in firefighters’...more
In the absence of enforceable federal standards for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”) in soil, several states have started the process of regulating PFAS in soil themselves. These regulations have implications for...more
On October 18, 2023, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) issued a rule to modify the reporting requirements for PFAS under the Toxics Release Inventory (“TRI”) program. Specifically, the EPA is...more
On September 28, 2023, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) issued a pre-publication rule for reporting and recordkeeping requirements regarding per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”) under the...more
10/6/2023
/ Commercial Use ,
Compliance ,
Contamination ,
Discharge of Pollutants ,
Due Diligence ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Final Rules ,
Hazardous Substances ,
Imports ,
Look-Back Measurement Period ,
Manufacturers ,
PFAS ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Toxic Chemicals ,
Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)
In the absence of an enforceable federal drinking water standard for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”), many states have started regulating PFAS compounds in drinking water. The result is a patchwork of regulations...more
On May 25, 2023, the United States Supreme Court issued its long-awaited opinion in Sackett v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, diving back into a decades-long debate over the definition of “waters of the United States”...more
6/6/2023
/ Clean Water Act ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Federal Jurisdiction ,
Inland Waterways ,
Navigable Waters ,
Real Estate Development ,
Sackett ,
Sackett v EPA ,
SCOTUS ,
Significant Nexus Test ,
US Army Corps of Engineers ,
Waters of the United States ,
Wetlands
EPA has spent the last several years working on listing perfluorooctanoic acid (“PFOA”) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (“PFOS”) as Hazardous Substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and...more
On December 15, 2022, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) published a final rule amending the Standards and Practices for All Appropriate Inquiries (“AAI”) to incorporate and adopt the American Society...more
On June 30, 2022, the United States Supreme Court handed down its opinion in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, holding by a 6-3 majority that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) overstepped its...more
In the United States, COVID-19 has presented unique challenges to continuous environmental compliance at many facilities, particularly in jurisdictions where emergency orders prohibit most employees from even entering the...more
PFAS are currently the subject of significant regulatory action, research, litigation, and public debate based on recent reports which claim that two PFAS, Perfluorooctanoic Acid (“PFOA”) and Perfluorooctane Sulfonate...more
PFAS are currently the subject of significant regulatory action, research, litigation, and public debate based on recent reports which claim that two PFAS, Perfluorooctanoic Acid (“PFOA”) and Perfluorooctane Sulfonate...more