Clean Water Act

EPA Cooling Water Intake Rule Upheld in Second Circuit

By: Nathaniel Eisen On July 23rd, 2018, the Second Circuit rejected multiple challenges to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA’s”) final rule setting technological standards to prevent aquatic organism deaths in the cooling systems of power plants and manufacturing facilities  (the “Cooling Water Intake Rule” or “Rule”). The 2014 Cooling Water Intake Rule, the culmination of 40…

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New York City Proposes First Stormwater Management Program Regulating Construction Runoff

For the first time, the City of New York has proposed a Stormwater Management Program (SWMP) to describe how the City will satisfy the requirements of its SPDES Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) Permit.  This means that, as soon as this fall, certain large construction projects in the City will need City Department of…

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Are Indirect Discharges from Groundwater to “Waters of the United States” Regulated Under the Clean Water Act? Hawai’i Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui

In Hawai’i Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui, No. 15-17447 (9th Cir. Feb. 1, 2018), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court ruling that  the County’s injection wells are “point sources” from which the County discharged pollutants in the form of treated effluent into groundwater, through which the pollutants…

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WOTUS Rule Litigation Abounds — New York State and Others Sue EPA and Army Corps over Delayed Implementation of Obama-Era WOTUS Rule

On February 6, 2018, New York State filed suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (together, “the agencies”) for the suspension of a 2015 regulation seeking to clarify the definition of “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act (“CWA”), dubbed the “Clean Water Rule”…

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EPA and the Corps Launch Effort to Rescind and Replace the 2015 “Clean Water Rule”

Also by: Zachary Berliner On June 27, 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“USACE”) released a joint proposal to rescind and ultimately replace the Obama administration’s 2015 “Clean Water Rule” (the “Rule”).  The Rule defines the extent of federal jurisdiction over “waters of the United States” under…

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Trump Executive Order Directs EPA and the Corps to Reconsider the 2015 “Clean Water Rule”

On February 28, 2017, the Trump administration issued an Executive Order (the “Order”) directing the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“USACE”) to begin the process of “revising or revoking” the Obama administration’s 2015 “Clean Water Rule” (the “Rule”) which sought to define the extent of federal jurisdiction over “waters…

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