Environmental Law Monitor

LATEST INSIGHTS

September 15, 2022 • Emerging Issues, Environmental Law Monitor, Microplastics

New Microplastics Requirements Put California’s Drinking Water to the Test

As previously reported in ELM, microplastics – plastic fragments smaller than 5 millimeters in length – have been found everywhere from Antarctica (https://www.goldbergsegalla.com/wp/emerging-issues/microplastics-found-for-the-first-time-in-freshly-fallen-snow/) to human lung tissue (https://www.goldbergsegalla.com/wp/emerging-issues/study-finds-microplastics-in-human-lung-tissue/) to, especially, bodies of water (https://www.goldbergsegalla.com/wp/emerging-issues/can-biofilm-engineering-be-used-to-address-microplastics-pollution/). This ubiquity has led to an increased number of studies and ever-improving sampling methods for the purposes of reversing the omnipresence …

September 15, 2022 • CERCLA, Environmental Law Monitor, EPA, PFAS

EPA Incites Further Controversy Proposing to Designate Forever Chemicals Under CERCLA

While critics may say the federal government has been slow to react to PFAS, last week the EPA took its most aggressive stance — publishing its notice for a proposed federal rule to designate two specific PFAS compounds, PFOA and PFOS, as “hazardous substances” under the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), and now the clock is ticking. Found in surface water, air, soil, and even more recently food …

September 8, 2022 • California, Climate Change, Environmental Law Monitor

Key Corporate Climate Accountability Bill Fails to Pass in California

Despite California’s most recent, two-year legislative session ending on September 1 with a flurry of new bills aimed at fighting global warming getting passed, one noticeable bill failed to pass on the last day. Senator Scott Wiener’s S.B. 260, i.e., California’s Climate Corporate Accountability Act, died on the legislative floor by one vote. Co-authored by …

September 1, 2022 • CERCLA, Environmental Law Monitor, EPA, PFAS, PFOA

EPA Proposes to Designate PFOA and PFOS as Hazardous Substances under CERCLA

Friday of last week the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) published a proposed rule that would designate perfluorooctanoic acid (“PFOA”) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (“PFOS”), including their salts and structural isomers, as hazardous substances under section 102(a) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (commonly known as CERCLA). The designations, if finalized, could have …

September 1, 2022 • Environmental Law Monitor, EPA, PFAS

EPA Previews 2021 List of Toxic Release Inventory

On July 28, 2022, the Environmental protection Agency (“EPA”) released its preliminary 2021 Toxics Release Inventory (“TRI”). The purpose of the TRI is to give the public critical information regarding chemical releases, waste management, and pollution prevention undertaken at both federal and industrial facilities in the United States. The TRI program was created by …

August 25, 2022 • Clean Air Act, Environmental Law Monitor, EPA

The Pendulum Swings Back Again on Clean Air

In June 1989, then-President George H. W. Bush proposed revisions to the Clean Air Act designed to reduce what were perceived as three of the largest threats to the environment at the time: toxic air emissions, acid rain, and urban air pollution. More specifically, Section 112r of what became the Clean Air Act Amendments of …

August 25, 2022 • Emerging Issues, Environmental Law Monitor, President Biden

New Law Provides Clean Energy Tax Credit Bonanza

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that President Biden signed into law on August 16 ran, all told, about 725 pages. One of the more complex and—for businesses—interesting portions of this law involves its restructuring and expanding of clean-energy tax credits, which may provide opportunities for companies operating in and around the clean-energy area. The IRA increased the tax …

August 18, 2022 • Emerging Issues, Environmental Law Monitor, EPA

EPA Renews Push for New ‘EtO’ Regulations and Outreach   

Following a study of 100 commercial sterilizer facilities, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced on August 3 it would takes steps to inform communities throughout the country about the risks posed by ethylene oxide (EtO) emissions from 23 of specific sterilizer facilities. The agency further announced that, using data from the same study as well …

People are holding banner signs while they are going to a demonstration against climate change

August 18, 2022 • Climate Change, Emerging Issues

Kids File Climate-Change Suit Against Their Home State, Alleging Betrayal 

Faced with back-to-back years of unprecedented flooding, wildfires, and soaring temperatures, sixteen teens and children from Montana, ages 2-18, are suing their home state in what may precipitate the next wave of climate-change litigation. With favorable rulings from a state judge and the Montana Supreme Court, the children’s lawsuit is on track to become the …

August 4, 2022 • Environmental Law Monitor, EPA, PFAS, PFOA, PFOS

Trade Association Submits Challenge to EPA’s New PFOA and PFOS Health Advisories

As reported in our blog back in June, the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled new drinking-water health advisories (HAs) for PFAS contaminants. Specifically, the advisories drastically reduced acceptable PFOA and PFOS water levels from 70 parts per trillion (set in 2016) down to 0.004 parts per trillion for PFOA and 0.02 parts per trillion for PFOS. …