Posts

Environment Report: Tijuana and San Diego Share a Sewage Problem But Not a Solution

/in , /by /Voice of San Diegoby MacKenzie Elmer

Vicente Calderon from Tijuana Press and I spend a lot of time picking our way around the sewage-laden Tijuana River, asking ourselves: How is it still this bad? Our latest story from the cross-border sewage crisis plaguing Tijuana and San Diego illuminated that the current approach to solving the problem is a lot like putting a Band-Aid on the stomach flu. The Band-Aid in this case is $300 million that Congress has charged the Environmental Protection Agency with deciding how to spend. But really, and here’s the flu part of the allegory, a lot of Tijuana’s infrastructure is just old and broken, or was never even built to support the neighborhoods that popped up on its hillsides.

Full Story

Where are the Lead Pipes? Finding Them May Prove Tough for EPA

/in , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Bobby Magill

Incomplete local record-keeping may stymie EPA efforts to locate the nation’s lead pipes to meet President Joe Biden’s goal of replacing them and improving drinking water quality, authorities say. A better way to reduce lead contamination in the nation’s drinking water, a former Environmental Protection Agency water chief says, is by enforcing an existing rule requiring utilities to replace some of their lead pipes every year.

The Biden administration’s infrastructure plan, released March 31, calls for replacing all lead drinking water pipes throughout the U.S. to avoid lead contamination drinking water similar to the crisis in Flint, Mich. As many as 10 million U.S. homes have lead service lines, the EPA said.

Full Story

Industry Eyeing EPA’s Hustle to Control ‘Forever Chemicals’

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Pat Rizzuto

Industry attorneys say they’re bracing for a wave of corporate liability and litigation as the Biden administration works swiftly to fulfill a campaign promise to control “forever chemicals.”

The Environmental Protection Agency this month announced it’s working on three water-related regulations for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. It sent a fourth chemical data-collection proposal to the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB, for approval.

Full Story

California May Regulate ‘Forever’ Chemicals in Water Before EPA

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Emily C. Dooley

California water suppliers could face state limits on the concentration of two so-called “forever chemicals” before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets national standards. Maximum contaminant levels for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) are on track to be in place in California in 2023, Darrin Polhemus, deputy director for drinking water programs at the State Water Resources Control Board, said during a board meeting Tuesday about agency priorities for the year.

Full Story

Bill Introduced to Address Water Pollution at U.S.-Mexico Border

/in , , /by /Times of San Diegoby City News Service

A coalition of San Diego County elected representatives introduced a bill Monday to address water pollution along the U.S.-Mexico border. The Border Water Quality Restoration and Protection Act would designate the Environmental Protection Agency as the lead coordinating federal, state, and local agencies’ efforts to build and maintain infrastructure projects aimed at reducing pollution along the border.

Full Story

Bill Introduced to Reduce Water Pollution at US-Mexico Border

/in , , /by /KPBS San Diegoby City News Service

A bill aimed at addressing pollution along the U.S.-Mexico border and improving water quality in the Tijuana and New rivers was introduced Wednesday.

The Border Water Quality Restoration and Protection Act would designate the Environmental Protection Agency as the lead agency coordinating federal, state and local agencies to build and maintain infrastructure projects aimed at reducing pollution along the border. It would also require the EPA and other agencies to identify a list of priority projects and would authorize the EPA to accept and distribute federal, state, and local funds to build, operate and maintain those projects.

Full Story

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra Challenges a President Trump-era Rule Weakening of Crucial Requirements that Protect Public from Lead in Drinking Water

/in , /by /Sierra Sun Times

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Monday joined a lawsuit challenging a Trump-era rule revising nationwide standards for controlling and remediating lead in drinking water. While the final rule includes certain necessary updates to the existing standard, these changes are overshadowed by the unlawful weakening of critical requirements and the rule’s failure to protect the public from lead in drinking water to the maximum extent feasible, as required by law. In the lawsuit, the coalition argues that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) update to the Lead and Copper Rule is arbitrary, capricious, and not in accordance with the Safe Drinking Water Act’s prohibition on the weakening of existing drinking water standards.

Full Story

EPA Water Pollution Permit Limits Challenged by San Francisco

/in , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Maya Earls

San Francisco is challenging the EPA over conditions imposed in a permit that allows the city to send discharge from its combined sewer system into the Pacific Ocean, according to a petition for review in the Ninth Circuit. The city’s filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit comes after the Environmental Protection Agency refused to review three conditions in the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System Permit. The EPA approved the permit in December 2019.

 

Full Story

Radhika Fox Appointed to Lead EPA’s Office of Water

/in , , /by /Water Finance & Management

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced the selection of US Water Alliance CEO Radhika Fox as the Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water. Fox was a Day One Presidential Appointee in the Biden-Harris Administration. She will serve as the Acting Assistant Administrator for Water.

Full Story

Senators Propose Level EPA Funding for 2021, No WIFIA Cuts

/in , , /by /Water Finance & Managementby WFM Staff

The U.S. EPA’s water infrastructure financing programs would be in line for approximately level funding next year under a plan for FY21 appropriations released by Senate Republicans last week. The funding proposal is detailed in the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies’ Nov. 16 Monday Morning Briefing.

Full Story