Tag Archive for: EPA

Opinion: Voluntary Agreements are a Better Plan for California

/in , /by /Association of California Water Agencies by Dave Eggerton and Mark Biddlecomb

Gov. Gavin Newsom has consistently expressed support for successful completion of voluntary agreements as a path forward in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta. The California Natural Resources Agency and California Environmental Protection Agency recently described collaborative, voluntary agreements as a “game changer” for the environment. We strongly agree, and stand ready in bringing proactive decision makers to the table for the management of water in the Delta and its tributaries.

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Protecting California’s Water Assets: State Releases New Water Resilience Portfolio

/in , /by /California Forward

Abundant and clean water supplies will be essential for California’s people, communities and economy to thrive in the future. Yet, the state faces significant challenges on the road to water security.

To address those difficulties, Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration has released a draft “Water Resilience Portfolio” designed to ensure that California’s water systems, both natural and constructed, will adequately support our growing state in the future.

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UC San Diego Professor: Recent Closing of US Coal Power Plants has Saved 26,610 Lives

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Rob Nikolewski

The number of coal-fired power plants in operation across the country has plummeted in recent years, quickly changing the power mix — especially in states such as California.

But what has that change meant in terms of health? Or even in the number of crops produced?

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Trump Hails WOTUS Overhaul as Critics Call for Investigation

/in , /by /E&E News by Jeremy P. Jacobs

President Trump yesterday touted his repeal of key Clean Water Act regulations as more than three dozen current and former government officials called for an investigation into the scientific basis of his forthcoming replacement rule.

Trump told a gathering of the country’s farmers that last fall he repealed “one of the most ridiculous regulations of all,” the Obama administration’s Waters of the U.S., or WOTUS, rule, which defined which marshes, creeks and streams quality for federal protections.

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Water Portfolio Lays Out State’s Long-Term Plans

/in , , /by /Ag Alert (Sacramento, Calif.)by Christine Souza

Farm organizations welcomed a new water planning document from state agencies while they analyzed the document’s proposed strategies.

Titled the California Water Resilience Portfolio and released last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration described the document as an effort to guide water management in a way that works for people, the environment and the economy.

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EPA Lead Proposal, Derided as Weak, May Be Sneakily Strong

/in , /by /Bloomberg Environmentby David Schultz

A provision tucked within the EPA’s proposal to overhaul the way it regulates lead in drinking water—initially derided as toothless—could have far-reaching consequences for public health, municipal policies, and even real estate transactions, water industry insiders now say.

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Congress to Halt Military Use of Toxic Foam Contaminating Drinking Water

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Anna M. Phillips

Congress has reached a deal on a spending bill that would require the military to stop using firefighting foam containing toxic chemicals linked to cancer, but would abandon efforts to place stronger regulations on the chemicals. The bill, called the National Defense Authorization Act, has been the focus of intense negotiations for months. House Democrats saw it as their best chance to force President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency to increase its oversight of a class of chemicals, called perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances — commonly known as PFAS — that have contaminated drinking water sources across the country.

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How PFAS Negotiations Fell Apart

/in , , /by /E&E News by Ariana Figueroa

Before Democrats managed to secure provisions to address a class of toxic chemicals in an annual defense measure, negotiations fell apart at the hands of their own members.

For months, Democrats pushed to attach provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act that would designate a class of 5,000 toxic chemicals, known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), as hazardous.

Doing so would spark federal cleanup standards. Democrats also wanted EPA to set a strong drinking water standard.

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EPA Releases Review Protocol For PFAS

/in , /by /Water Onlineby Peter Chawaga

Contamination of drinking water from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) may be the nation’s most pressing drinking water quality issue. With many calling for the expedited banning and removal of PFAS in water sources, a new U.S. EPA procedure to better assess them may be a concrete step in that direction.

“The US EPA has published a systemic review protocol for the toxicity assessment of five per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) and is now seeking the public’s input on its approach during a 45-day comment period,” according to Chemical Watch.

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Supreme Court Leans Toward Expanding Clean Water Act To Protect Oceans From Wastewater

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Times by David G. Savage

Supreme Court justices, both conservative and liberal, appeared skeptical Wednesday of a Trump administration argument that the federal Clean Water Act should not apply to sewage plant wastewater that flows into the ground and eventually seeps into federally protected waters, such as rivers or oceans.

The case from Hawaii has emerged as a major test of the federal anti-pollution law’s scope even as the Environmental Protection Agency under President Trump cuts back on enforcement. If justices side with environmentalists, their ruling could extend federal regulation to water treatment plants across the country.

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