EPA Withdraws CWA Permit Contested In EAB Deference Case

摘要

EPA has withdrawn a Clean Water Act (CWA) permit for a Massachusetts wastewater treatment plan and will reconsider the permit limits, which will end a pending Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) challenge to the permit that was seen as a potential test of the deference judges will give the agency on permitting decisions. An attorney for the appellants in the EAB suit, Brattle Road Farm Condominium Trust v. EPA, says the parties involved are preparing a joint motion for dismissal after EPA Region 1 filed a notice dated July 30 that it was voluntarily vacating federally-crafted permit limits that the trust said were arbitrary or unlawful. "[T]he Regional Administrator may withdraw portions of a contested permit and prepare a new draft permit... addressing the portions so withdrawn at any time prior to thirty (30) days after filing the response to the petition. The Region has decided to exercise that right," the July 30 notice says.