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The U.S. EPA announced the availability of a 331-page report entitled “Connectivity of Streams and Wetlands to Downstream Waters,” which compiles and evaluates peer-reviewed literature on the impacts and connectivity of smaller, isolated water bodies to larger downstream waters.  The Agency announced that a final version of the report “will serve as a basis for a joint EPA and Army Corps of Engineers rulemaking aimed at clarifying the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act.”  With this announcement, EPA has charted a new path for its attempts to more clearly delineate the scope of Clean Water Act jurisdiction.

Smith_Brooks_WebTroutman Sanders is pleased to announce that Brooks Smith, a top-ranked environmental and administrative lawyer, has joined the firm’s Environmental and Natural Resources practice in the Richmond office. He previously served as co-chair of the environmental practice at Hunton & Williams. Smith will help the firm execute various strategic initiatives focused on environmental markets, sustainability, coal, energy, water, and compliance assurance. Law 360 reported this news on Wednesday, August 28. Read more here.

Louisiana Sen. David Vitter, who had been holding up Gina McCarthy’s nomination in committee, announced on Tuesday that he won’t support a filibuster against her confirmation on the senate floor. Vitter and other members of the Committee on Environment and Public Works had indicated their dissatisfaction with EPA’s responses to five transparency questions in May.  

Full disclosure and strict compliance with the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting process under the Clean Water Act (CWA) has its benefits. That was the message delivered in a recent decision by the Federal District Court of Alaska in Alaska Community Action on Toxics v. Aurora Energy Services.