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Groups Seek Ninth Circuit Review of EPA’s Denial of Petition for Stronger CWA Regulation of Factory Farms

Food & Water Watch, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, and 10 other community and advocacy groups petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to review the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s denial of their petition for stronger Clean Water Act (CWA) regulations for concentrated animal feeding operations. The groups argue that the EPA’s denial was arbitrary and capricious and contrary to its CWA obligations. They are asking the court to vacate the EPA’s denial of their petition for rulemaking and remand to the agency for further consideration.

Conservation Groups Prevail in Suit Challenging Federal Approval of Florida’s Clean Water Act Permitting Program

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) violated the Endangered Species Act when they took action to approve Florida’s application to assume authority over permitting under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. The court noted it had previously ruled that the agencies violated the Administrative Procedure Act. In this ruling, the court vacated FWS’s Biological Opinion and Incidental Take Statement and EPA’s approval of Florida’s permitting assumption application. The ruling comes in a case brought by Earthjustice on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, Conservancy of Southwest Florida, Florida Wildlife Federation, Miami Waterkeeper, and St. Johns Riverkeeper in which the plaintiffs claimed that EPA’s approval of Florida’s permitting program was unlawful because the state’s program was “not as stringent as federal law and rests on unprecedented arrangements that violate federal law.”

Bill Would Block CWA Regulations Designed to Limit Surface Water Discharges by Meat and Poultry Facilities

H.R. 7079, the “Banning EPA’s Encroachment on Facilities [BEEF] Act,” would prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from finalizing, implementing, and enforcing proposed Clean Water Act regulations that would revise effluent limitations and standards for meat and poultry products by reducing discharges into surface waters by animal agriculture facilities. The bill was introduced by Representatives Eric Burlison, Ron Estes, Andy Ogles, and Chuck Edwards and referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

EPA Proposes Regulation to Reduce Factory Farm Discharges into U.S. Surface Waters

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a Clean Water Act regulation that would “revise the technology-based effluent limitations guidelines and standards” for meat and poultry product category point sources. EPA’s preferred proposed regulatory option could reduce pollutant discharges into the nation’s surface waters by animal agriculture facilities by around 100 million pounds per year. EPA is accepting public comments on the proposed regulations through March 25, 2024.

EPA Proposes CWA Rule to Reduce Wastewater Pollution by Meat and Poultry Production Facilities

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposed rule to revise wastewater discharge standards for meat and poultry product processing facilities. The Clean Water Act (CWA) requires EPA to revise wastewater treatment limits for industry as available technologies evolve. The updated technology-based pollution limits proposed in the regulation could reduce the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, and other pollutants that meat and poultry processors discharge to the nation’s waters by approximately 100 million pounds of pollutants per year. EPA will hold two public hearings on the proposed rule in January 2024 and will accept public comments when the proposal is published in the Federal Register.

Twenty-Four States Seek Vacatur of EPA’s New WOTUS Rule

Twenty-four states filed an amended complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota seeking vacatur of the final rule reinterpreting “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) under the Clean Water Act. The plaintiff states allege that the WOTUS rule is unlawfully broad, arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act, and in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause, Due Process Clause, and Tenth Amendment. Plaintiffs are seeking declaratory judgment and vacatur of the WOTUS rule and enforcement enjoinment.

Bill Would Reverse Limitations Imposed on CWA by Recent SCOTUS Ruling

H.R. 5983, the “Clean Water Act of 2023,” would more clearly define the types of bodies of water that are protected and restore federal jurisdiction over tens of millions of acres of wetlands and streams that the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency ruling eliminated. The bill was introduced by Representatives Rick Larsen, Grace Napolitano, Don Beyer, and Melanie Stansbury, along with 114 other original cosponsors.

More than 100 Groups Urge President Biden to Reverse DHS Waiver of Federal Laws to Expedite Border Wall Construction

The Center for Biological Diversity, ACLU, Sierra Club, Earthjustice, GreenLatinos, Wilderness Society, Defenders of Wildlife, Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, and more than 100 others sent a letter to President Biden. The letter urges the President to reverse a Department of Homeland Security decision to waive legal protections for border communities and wildlife to facilitate the “expeditious construction of barriers” along the Texas-Mexico border near the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. Pursuant to authority granted by Congress in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas exercised his authority to “waive in their entirety” dozens of federal statutes, including the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Migratory Bird Conservation Act, Clean Air Act, National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act, Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, Eagle Protection Act, Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, Administrative Procedure Act, and Federal Land Policy and Management Act.

Federal Judge Rejects Massachusetts Fishers’ Challenge to Federal Approval of Offshore Wind Farm Project

The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted a motion for summary judgement filed by the U.S. Department of the Interior and other federal defendants in a lawsuit brought by Massachusetts fishers. The fishers claimed that the agencies improperly approved a proposed wind farm project off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. They brought claims under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) for violations of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), Clean Water Act (CWA), Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), and Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA). U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani ruled the fishers failed to establish standing on their ESA, NEPA, and MMPA claims (where the claims were not found to be moot). Judge Talwani further ruled that the fishers failed to provide sufficient evidence of statutory violations and to establish in their CWA and OCSLA claims that the challenged federal actions related to the wind farm project were arbitrary, capricious, or otherwise unlawful.

Environmental Groups Petition Ninth Circuit for Review of EPA’s Refusal to Revise Clean Water Act Regulations for CAFOs

A coalition of 13 environmental groups, including Food & Water Watch, Center for Biological Diversity, and North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, is challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) denial of a 2017 petition for rulemaking urging EPA to revise Clean Water Act regulations for concentrated animal feeding operations. Plaintiffs are represented by Food & Water Watch and the Earthrise Law Center at Lewis & Clark Law School. The petition for review is pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.