The Environmental Protection Agency isn’t required to revise every outdated wastewater pollution standard for various industries, but its decision in 2023 to not revise standards using new pollution control technologies is both arbitrary and capricious, a Ninth Circuit panel ruled Wednesday. In 2023 several environmental groups, including Waterkeeper Alliance and the Center for Biological Diversity, filed a complaint directly to the Ninth Circuit, challenging the EPA’s decision to not revise “effluent limitations, effluent limitation guidelines, standards of performance for new sources, and pretreatment standards” that haven’t been updated in decades. Passed in 1972, the Clean Water Act requires the agency to regulate industrial pollutants that make their way into the water, based on the best available wastewater treatment technology. But according to the plaintiffs, the EPA has never set limits on plants that mold and form plastic, and has gone nearly 40 years without updating wastewater limits on inorganic chemical plants and petroleum refineries. 

Other EPA news:

• Politico: Judge rules EPA termination of environmental justice grants was unlawful
• NPR: Trump administration actions contradict MAHA rhetoric on toxic chemicals
• E&E News by Politico: EPA science revamp calls for ‘much smaller’ office
• Courthouse News: Justices give EPA home-court advantage in national pollution disputes
• Stormwater Solutions: EPA and Army gather public input for plan to revise definition of WOTUS