Oil Spill Suit Could Set Precedent For Quick Court Action Under Water Act

摘要

An environmentalists' lawsuit filed against BP alleging violations of the Clean Water Act for the massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico aims to test a never-used provision of the law that allows citizen lawsuits to proceed before the expiration of the usual 60-day notice period, a move that would allow activists to seek immediate injunctive relief from courts when companies violate new source performance standards (NSPS) and toxic release limits established by EPA.rnThe case, Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) v. BP et aL, was filed June 18 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, less than three weeks after the environmental group sent the company a 60-day notice of its intent to file under the water act's citizen lawsuit provisions. The lawsuit is available on InsideEPA.com. See page 2 for details.