Appellate Ruling Sets High Bar For Efforts To Speed CWA Permit Reviews

摘要

A federal court appears to have set a high bar for environmentalists to force regulators to revise discharge permits within the five-year statutory review period, rejecting a push to set a deadline for EPA to revise two permits after finding that its 17-year delay did not meet the bar of being an "extraordinary situation" that justifies issuance of an order. In a May 8 ruling in In Re: Sierra Club Inc., et al., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit declined to grant a petition from environmentalists seeking a mandamus order requiring the agency to complete its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit reviews for two coal-fired power plants - the Schiller plant in New Hampshire and the Mt. Tom plant in Massachusetts - even though the court raised concerns over EPA's delays. The ruling is available on InsideEPA.com. Seepage 2 for details. (Doc ID: 2434311).