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Environment
USA
A federal judge in the District of Columbia has given the Environmental Protection Agency one final week to issue its proposed rule updating standards for particulate matter air pollution. The proposed regulations are more than six months overdue, according to the October 2011 statutory deadline, and must meet requirements set by a federal appeals court in 2009.
The Environmental Protection Agency has released its draft feasibility study for the Gowanus Canal, proposing a series of options for remediating the 1.8-mile long Brooklyn Superfund site. All of the remedial options, aside from a mandatory 'no action' alternative, involve a combination of dredging the canal's sediment and reducing external sources of contamination, including sewage discharges from combined sewer overflows.
The White House has directed the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw and reconsider a proposal to strengthen National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ground-level ozone, the primary ingredient in smog. The announcement marks the first time that the Obama administration formally returned one of its own agencies' proposals, and could indicate heightened executive scrutiny of the economic impact of forthcoming rules.
With the Environmental Protection Agency largely barred from regulating hydraulic fracturing ('fracking') under the Safe Drinking Water Act, regulatory proponents have turned their attention to alternate means of controlling the industry's environmental impacts. Fracking regulation is also moving forward on the state and regional level.
The New York Department of Environmental Conservation recently issued invoices that would double-bill parties for fees relating to the generation, transportation or disposal of hazardous waste in 2007, 2008, and 2009. The invoices target not only industrial waste generators, but also parties that excavated and shipped hazardous waste during remedial clean-ups in the covered years.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has followed through on his threat to file a lawsuit seeking environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act before the issuance of final natural gas development regulations by the Delaware River Basin Commission. The lawsuit names several federal agencies as defendants.
