On April 24, Troutman Sanders partner Sean Sullivan presented during the PFAS and Other Emerging Contaminants Conference hosted by the American Council of Engineering Companies of North Carolina.
Sean’s presentation, “Turning Science into Law: The Process for Setting Health-Based Exposure Limits” explored the Safe Drinking Water Act, the EPA’s PFAS
On April 12, 2019, the Fifth Circuit issued its opinion in Southwestern Elec. Power Co. v. EPA, ordering EPA to reconsider parts of its 2015 Effluents Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Steam Electric Power Generating Point Source Category (“2015 ELG Rule”). The opinion resolves a challenge brought by environmental groups regarding the rule’s effluent limitation guidelines for “legacy” wastewater and for combustion residual leachate from landfills or settling ponds.
On May 30th, EPA reinstated a Bush Administration RCRA exemption that allows third-party recycling of hazardous secondary materials, known as the “Transfer-Based Exclusion.” The move will make it easier for facilities to use vendors to recycle materials like spent solvents and expired pharmaceuticals without managing them as hazardous waste. As a result, it may be possible for Large Quantity Generators (“LQG”) to reduce their generator status and avoid the compliance obligations that come with being an LQG.
Troutman Sanders has formed a new group, Species Strategies and Solutions (S3), which will track policy, regulatory, legislative, and litigation developments regarding federally-protected wildlife and plants. Initiatives to address infrastructure projects, and how those initiatives relate to species-related review requirements, will also be featured. S3 will be focused primarily on national-level species-related developments that have the potential to affect construction and operation of projects in those sectors. S3 is not a lobbying or advocacy group; rather, its purpose is to facilitate a better understanding of the issues associated with compliance with the Endangered Species Act, and strategies for addressing those issues.
On April 5, 2017, the EPA responded to a request from industry stakeholders saying it will reconsider the Obama-era Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Steam Electric Power Generating Point Source Category rule (“ELG Rule”) that set the first federal limits on how much toxic metal can be discharged with power plants’ wastewater. 80 Fed. Reg. 67838 (Nov. 3, 2015).
Sean M. Sullivan a Partner at Troutman Sanders in its Environmental Section held a webinar for the NC Bar Association on January 12, 2017 dealing with environmental issues in bankruptcy and failed development projects.
On September 27, 2016, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service (collectively, “the Services”) published a final rule finalizing changes to the regulations concerning listing and de-listing petitions under the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”). The revisions clarify and enhance the procedures by which the Services evaluate these petitions under section 4(b)(3) of the ESA. The Services initially proposed revisions to the petitions process in May 2015, but narrowed the revisions in a re-proposal issued in April 2016. The rule becomes effective October 27, 2016.
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in CTS Corp. v. Waldburger and recent modifications to North Carolina’s 10-year statute of repose, some have questioned how the repose period applies to environmental indemnity agreements. N.C.G.S. 1-52(16) provides that a cause of action for personal injury or property damage may not be brought more than ten years after the defendant’s last act or omission giving rise to the claim. Though the legislature recently added an exception to the repose period for claims associated with consumption of – or exposure to – contaminated groundwater, it does not explain when the repose period begins to run on enforcement of environmental indemnity agreements. The Middle District of North Carolina recently held that the repose period does not start to run until the indemnitor fails to honor its agreement to make the indemnitee whole.
Earlier this week, the governors of ten states in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast took the first step towards asserting control over portions of nine other states’ authority to regulate air pollution. The petitioning states, all of which are members of the 13-state Ozone Transport Region (the “OTR”), asked EPA to require the following upwind states to join the OTR: