New York state is signaling in new comments that it may join environmentalists in a likely suit against EPA over the recently finalized Clean Water Act (CWA) rule for cooling water intake structures at power plants and other industrial facilities - action that could come soon since the agency published the rule in the Federal Register, Aug. 15. The state's Department of Environmental Conservation argues in July 28 comments that EPA's rule is substantially weaker than the Bush-era measures that it was crafted to replace after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit remanded them to EPA in 2007 - echoing criticism levied earlier by environmentalists, who threatened to sue shortly after the regulation was finalized in May. "[M]any of the changes in the proposed rule . . . were not considered by and are unrelated to the specific determination of the Second Circuit's decision in Riverkeeper, Inc. v, EPA. These requirements impose significant additional study and reporting at significant additional expenditure of resources for both industry and regulators," the state says in comments on a related information collection request (ICR) needed to gather data to enforce the rule's reporting and record-keeping requirements.
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