Refusal to Regulate Urban Stormwater Lands EPA in Hot Water

摘要

Refusal to regulate stormwater runoff from parking lots and buildings at hospitals, universities, big box stores and factories in Baltimore and Los Angeles has landed the EPA in hot water. Environmental groups sued in two separate federal appeals courts this week saying the Environmental Protection Agency should exercise its authority under the Clean Water Act to require National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits to regulate the runoff from these sites, which are currently not regulated at all (Los Angeles Waterkeeper v. Pruitt, 9th Cir., No. 17-70570, 2/27/17;Blue Water Baltimore v. Pruitt, 4th Cir., No. 17-1258, 2/28/17).