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EPA considering change to water pollution regulation
Story Date: 2/21/2018
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Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 2/20/18
EPA is asking for comments on whether it should revise its wishy-washy policy on pollution discharges through groundwater. The move has environmentalists fearing that the agency under Administrator Scott Pruitt is preparing to create a major loophole for concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), power plants and other industries.
The Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled earlier this month that a Hawaii sewage treatment plant that injects its wastewater into underground wells connected via groundwater to the Pacific Ocean needed to get a Clean Water Act pollution permit. It was the latest in a series of conflicting court cases over whether discharges through groundwater are regulated under federal law.
What the agency may do: EPA has not been clear on the issue, saying in the past only that such cases "may" require permits. Now, the agency is asking whether those past statements should be revised - by memo, guidance or rule.
EPA posits that it would do so for the sake of regulatory clarity and certainty, but environmental groups fear the move presages another regulatory rollback that could hamstring their ability to challenge pollution from coal-ash ponds, CAFOs and landfills.
"The Clean Water Act is absolutely clear that this kind of dangerous pollution is illegal and political appointees at EPA don't have the power to change it," Frank Holleman, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, said in a statement.
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