Environmental Compliance & Permitting

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On November 2, 2021, the U.S. EPA announced revisions to its mercury inventory reporting rule under TSCA. The revisions eliminate an exemption for companies that import pre-assembled products containing a mercury-added component. The will result in companies that import certain batteries, switches, pumps, thermostats, fluorescent lights, and other industrial equipment to file reports under TSCA…

On October 18, 2021, EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan announced the PFAS Strategic Roadmap: EPA’s Commitments to Action 2021-2024 (Roadmap). The Roadmap is intended to be a comprehensive approach to confronting PFAS contamination nationwide. Among many other efforts, the Roadmap includes the following planned actions:

  • Establishing a national primary drinking water regulation for PFOA and

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As previously discussed in a post on the Manufacturing Law Blog, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is increasing scrutiny of how thoroughly companies evaluate and disclose Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) risk, specifically climate change, and the impacts such risk may have on a company’s operations. In the latest move in…

The latest season of Clean Water Act (CWA) changes are now streaming from the courts and federal agencies. The Biden administration and lower courts have picked up where prior administrations and the U.S. Supreme Court left off, as we reported last year in Binge-Watching the Clean Water Act Cases and Rules. Unless Congress somehow finds bipartisan support for legislative fixes, we expect contentious CWA rulemaking proceedings to resume and protracted CWA litigation to prosper. These actions constrain land developers, utilities and companies with projects or operations that impact wetlands or other water features. These decisions might also give environmental groups and agencies stronger grounds on which to base CWA claims targeting sewers, pipelines, tanks, and other systems that leak or seep wastes into groundwater.
Continue Reading Catching Up on the 2021 Clean Water Act Releases

Recently, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit against the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), claiming that polyvinyl chloride – more commonly known as PVC or vinyl – should be regulated as a hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).

The complaint comes seven years after the Center formally petitioned…

As we previously reported, EPA published a PFAS Action Plan in 2019 designed to enhance and improve data gathering, regulatory development, enforcement, and communication related to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). EPA continues to make progress implementing the PFAS Action Plan and is working on a more formal framework for addressing PFAS under the…