02/13/2018
It’s Valentine’s time, and EPA has dished out some tough love lately for alleged criminal and civil violations of environmental law and regulations.
02/05/2018
US EPA has announced three public listening sessions and will re-open the public comment period regarding the Agency’s proposal to repeal the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which contains rules for emissions from power plants.
Facilities in Indiana, California, New York, and Delaware are all subjects of EPA criminal or civil penalties in this week's EPA Enforcement Roundup.
02/01/2018
US EPA last week released guidance to reverse a long-held Clean Air Act policy that enabled the Agency to regulate sources of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) as “major sources” even if the facility no longer had the potential to emit pollutants above the major source threshold.
01/25/2018
This week, the US Supreme Court decided unanimously not to take up a challenge to EPA’s 2015 Waters of the United States, or WOTUS, Final Rule. The Court held that challenges to the Final Rule—which expanded the Agency’s authority to enforce the Clean Water Act by more broadly interpreting the term “navigable waters”—must be brought in district courts and not circuit appeals courts, where this case originated.
01/02/2018
A lump of coal may be the holiday gift for bad boys and girls, but EPA had a much worse “present” in store for two carbon black manufacturers in December. In the final week of 2017, EPA giftwrapped some major Clean Air Act penalties for these two companies, totaling about $2 million.
12/19/2017
When we talk about hazardous waste, we usually talk about EPA’s “cradle-to-grave” management requirements. But what if your hazardous waste stops being hazardous waste at some point in the process? How do change the way you manage it without running afoul of the RCRA regulations?
12/18/2017
This week, the EPA Enforcement Roundup returns for our final installment of 2017! This time around, the President of an environmental services firm In Pennsylvania faces criminal charges for illegal storage and disposal of hazardous waste.
11/22/2017
US EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers have proposed adding an applicability date to the much-debated 2015 Waters of the United States (WOTUS) Final Rule. The Final Rule, still stayed nationwide by court order and now under consideration by the Supreme Court, expanded the scope of the Clean Water Act to address discharges to bodies of water not previously covered.
11/20/2017
If environmental groups and concerned citizens find they cannot achieve their aims by bringing EPA to court, they may double their efforts to sue individual facilities for perceived violations of environmental law and regulations.
When EPA civil penalties rise, so does the value of environmental compliance.