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Viktoriia De Las Casas

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Viktoriia is an environmental and natural resources attorney with experience in regulatory compliance, permitting, due diligence, enforcement, and litigation matters. She focuses her practice on advising clients on all aspects of compliance with the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (BGEPA), and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). Viktoriia works with real estate developers, wind, solar, and transmission line operators, and other businesses on wildlife issues that come up during federal and state permitting. In addition, Viktoriia is a member of the firm’s State Energy Regulation practice where she represents clients before the Virginia State Corporation Commission and Maryland Public Service Commission. Over the years Viktoriia has also developed proficiency in advising clients how to address environmental justice requirements that arise in permitting, litigation, and other contexts. She has also been assisting clients in developing company-wide strategies for compliance with various reporting obligations, for example, EPA’s TSCA PFAS reporting rule.

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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 April 15, 2019, EPA issued its long-awaited Interpretative Statement addressing the Clean Water Act’s applicability to releases of pollutants from point sources into groundwater that subsequently migrate to jurisdictional surface waters. The question this interpretation addresses stems from the 2018 federal circuit split previously discussed here. On February 19, 2019, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in one of the cases that contributed to the split, County of Maui v. Hawai’i Wildlife Fund. The United States filed its amicus brief in that case, urging the highest court to review County of Maui, but not a similar ruling from the Fourth Circuit. As the question was being reviewed by the federal courts, EPA requested public comment on this issue and received over 50,000 comments. EPA is addressing some of these comments in the Interpretative Statement.

On March 8, 2019, the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of the Army, and Army Corps of Engineers petitioned the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 4th and 9th Circuits to voluntarily dismiss their appeals of the Suspension rule. This is yet another development in the litigation surrounding the 2015 Waters of the United States Rule (WOTUS). Our previous blog posts on this topic can be accessed here.