The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has fined Denbury Onshore, LLC, of Alvin, Texas, $13,905 for violating the federal Clean Water Act. Today’s announcement settles a Clean Water Act violation for a 7,560-gallon oil spill into Crystal Creek, a tributary of the San Jacinto River, and adjoining shorelines in Montgomery County, Texas. The settlement requires the company to pay the civil ...
The Obama Administration has sent letters to House and Senate leaders signaling that the Administration supports efforts to clarify the waters that should be protected by the Clean Water Act (CWA). Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) has introduced legislation in the Senate. A key provision of the bill is a change in the definition of the waters to be protected under the CWA. Whereas the Act now reads ...
The Environmental Protection Agency has fined the Citation Oil and Gas Corporation of Houston, Texas, $22,000 for violating the federal Clean Water Act. Today’s announcement settles a Clean Water Act violation for an 11,970 gallon spill of oil and salt water into Clear Boggy Creek and adjoining shorelines in Pontotoc County, Oklahoma. The settlement requires the company to pay the civil ...
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, December 14, 2006 (ENS) - A federal grand jury in Salt Lake City has indicted the parent company of gold and silver refiner Johnson Matthey Inc. with conspiracy to violate the Clean Water Act. The UK based corporate parent, Johnson Matthey PLC is a diversified multi-national specialty chemicals producer. On March 22, Johnson Matthey Inc. and two senior company managers ...
The Environmental Protection Agency has fined Denbury Onshire, LLC, of Alvin, Texas, $19,927 for violating the federal Clean Water Act. Today’s announcement settles a Clean Water Act violation for a 14,700-gallon oil spill into an unnamed tributary of Crystal Creek, and adjoining shorelines in Montgomery County, Texas. The settlement requires the company to pay the civil fine within 30 ...
Wasington, DC - To restore federal protection of waters and wetlands, a bi-partisan bill was introduced in the House on Tuesday that attempts to clarify the original intent of Congress in the 1972 Clean Water Act. Two Supreme Court decisions that obscured the definition of which water bodies are covered by the 1972 law have made the new measure necessary, its sponsors say. Democratic ...
The Environmental Protection Agency has fined Enterprise Crude Pipeline of Houston, Texas, $5,000 for violating the federal Clean Water Act. Today’s announcement settles a Clean Water Act violation for a 4,200 gallon oil spill into Bull Creek, a tributary of the Colorado River, and adjoining shorelines in Scurry County, Texas. As part of an Expedited Settlement with the EPA, the company has ...
The National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), the Water Environment Federation (WEF), and the Association of Clean Water Administrators (ACWA) along with local utilities and others in the clean water community came together to celebrate 40 years of accomplishments under the Clean Water Act (CWA) and to call for a new vision to ensure further water quality progress. Representatives of ...
My apologies for my environmental regulatory blog inactivity. My recovery from eye surgery has been slower than expected. I will catch up on a number of other topics over the next few weeks but today I am going to focus on the WOTUS rulemaking and other recent Clean Water Act developments. First of all, I want to make clear that this regulatory blog does not represent my ...
Some are calling it “the clean water case of the century.” It arose over a sewage treatment plant on Maui, in the Hawaiian Islands, that was disposing of 4 million gallons of partially treated sewage into the groundwater wells half a mile from the beach. A large percentage of the pollution found its way into the Pacific. The discharge certainly sparked controversy, but was it illegal? ...
EPA Region 7 has reached an administrative consent agreement with a Patton, Mo., property owner to resolve Clean Water Act violations involving unpermitted discharges of pollutants into two tributaries of Baltimore Creek. Brent McMinn agreed to pay a $20,000 civil penalty as part of the settlement filed by EPA Region 7 in Lenexa, Kan. A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) inspection in ...
EPA has released its decision on Nebraska's 2006/2008 list of impaired waters. EPA is approving Nebraska's decision to list 177 waters and is postponing final action on 37 lakes and reservoirs. EPA and the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) have agreed to revise Nebraska's lake and reservoir criteria plan. The revised criteria will be used in the next listing cycle to assess ...
Today, the U.S. EPA announced the approval of the Havasupai Tribe’s application for “Treatment in the same manner as a State” under Section 303 of the Clean Water Act. This decision promotes tribal self-government, empowering the Havasupai Tribe to develop water quality standards in order to protect Tribal waters, which include numerous creeks, springs, and approximately 155 ...
The Environmental Protection Agency has fined Denbury Onshore, LLC, of Alvin, Texas, $16,600 for violating the federal Clean Water Act. On April 4, 2012, the EPA inspected the company’s Central Treating Station oil storage facility in Montgomery County, Texas, and found that the company had failed to develop and implement a Facility Response Plan (FRP) as required by federal regulations. ...
EPA Region 7 has reached a settlement with a Jefferson County, Mo., property owner to resolve Clean Water Act violations involving unpermitted discharges of pollutants into an unnamed tributary of Belews Creek. As part of the settlement, Greg Schellert has agreed to pay a penalty of $30,000 and fully restore the impacted portion of the tributary. A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) ...
EPA has determined that new or revised water quality standards are necessary to protect the Mississippi River in Missouri. Missouri designated about 3,600 stream segments and all of its lakes for recreational uses in March 2006. However, Missouri did not assign the highest level of recreational use to a 195.5-mile segment of the Mississippi River that flows from St. Louis to the confluence of the ...
EPA has approved Iowa's 2008 list of impaired waters. This decision will help the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) set priorities for restoration activities to improve water quality in the coming years. EPA Region 7 Administrator Karl Brooks said, 'The impaired waters identified on Iowa’s list will help to reduce sources of water pollution in the state. This is a big step toward ...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today released updated data and a mapping tool designed to help the public compare water quality trends over the last two years. The web-based, interactive map includes “state dashboards” that provide detailed information for each state, including information on facilities that are violating the Clean Water Act and the actions states are ...
The defining of protected waters has reignited a historic battle between state’s rights versus federal rights. This was expected as the debate has been ongoing since the enactment of the Clean Water Act of 1972. The Clean Water Act of 1972 The Clean Water Act was enacted to eliminate discharges of toxic pollutants to protect lakes and rivers. However, the scope of the law was vague. ...
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced it had settled a complaint against Camterra Resources, Inc., of Marshall, Texas, for violations of the Clean Water Act. Camterra Resources, a natural gas exploration and production company, began filling in 33 acres of wetlands in Caddo and DeSoto parishes, Louisiana, in the fall months of 2008 without receiving authorization from the ...