Environmental Groups Sue EPA Over Water Pollution Regulations

According to the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), a coalition of 13 environmental organizations recently filed a lawsuit alleging that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has violated federal law by failing to update regulations regarding water pollution.

In 1972, the Clean Water Act (CWA) was enacted to reorganize and expand the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948. The CWA states that the EPA must set limits on the amount of pollution produced by companies based on the best available technology, and those limits must be revised every five years.

But according to EIP, the EPA has never set limits for many water pollutants and has failed to update limits that were set nearly 40 years ago for some industrial sectors, including oil refineries, plastic manufacturers, and fertilizer plants. The guidelines for 40 of 59 industries regulated by EPA were last updated 30 or more years ago, with 17 of those dating back to the 1970s.

According to EIP’s statistics, outdated regulations are responsible for the dumping of 15.7 million pounds of nitrogen and 1.6 billion pounds of chlorides, sulfates, and other dissolved solids into waterways in 2021 by U.S. oil refineries. The article also noted that 21 fertilizer plants discharged 7.7 million pounds of total nitrogen. In 2019, the EPA estimated that 229 inorganic chemical plants dumped over 2 billion pounds of pollution into waterways. According to EIP, these chemicals are harmful to aquatic life and contribute to algae blooms.

“No one should get a free pass to pollute. It’s completely unacceptable that EPA has, for decades, ignored the law and failed to require modern wastewater pollution controls for oil refineries and petrochemical and plastics plants,” said Jen Duggan, EIP’s deputy director. “We expect EPA to do its job and protect America’s waterways and public health as required by the Clean Water Act.”

The lawsuit was filed by the coalition in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. It challenges the EPA’s decision on January 31 not to update outdated and weak water pollution control technology standards for seven industrial sectors: petroleum refineries, inorganic and organic chemical manufacturers, and manufacturers of plastics, fertilizer, pesticide, and nonferrous metals.