… While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has changed
directions on several environmental subjects since President
Donald Trump took office, PFAS regulations are not yet among
those. Indeed, the Biden Administration EPA’s PFAS Strategic
Roadmap still is posted on the EPA’s website – at least for now
– and the EPA has not reported in two cases the positions it
will take on judicial challenges to final Biden-era PFAS
regulations. Thus, although those regulations are under
challenge, they are in effect, they have not been stayed, and
they are having impacts in the regulated community. The
EPA’s April 2024 PFAS maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) under
the Safe Drinking Water Act will affect drinking water systems,
of course. More broadly, they also will affect groundwater
cleanups as the low MCL values become integrated into screening
levels, risk analyses, and remediation levels.
Staten Island lies in the heart of California’s Sacramento-San
Joaquin River Delta, and exemplifies the woes of this troubled
region. More than one quarter of the Delta―about 200,000
acres―is deeply subsided. This extreme soil loss puts stress on
the levees encircling the islands. And, because the soil there
is peat and so rich in organic matter, subsidence in the
central Delta also spews carbon into the air. … But
Staten Island also offers among the best hope for solving the
Delta’s soil loss and greenhouse gas emission problems. The
Nature Conservancy is testing ways of halting and even
reversing subsidence on the island, and the latest project is a
wetland restoration slated to begin as early as this
summer.
The Trump administration has shunted one of the US federal
government’s top scientific agencies onto a “non-science
trajectory”, workers warn, that threatens to derail decades of
research and leave the US with “air that’s not breathable and
water that’s not drinkable”. Workers and scientists at the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) are
warning of the drastic impacts of cuts at the agency on
science, research, and efforts to protect natural resources.
… Trump administration officials are seeking to abolish
the scientific research division at Noaa, the Oceanic and
Atmospheric Research (Oar) office. It is the latest of a series
of cuts at the agency that began the second Trump
administration with 12,000 employees around the world,
including more than 6,700 engineers and scientists.
… Water users across the (Colorado River Basin) have for
years been talking about what to do next. They agree that water
use should be cut deeper and for the longer haul than we have
before. There are even proposals to do so. But no one knows
which — if any — are still on the table. … It’s telling that
while state negotiators continue to meet (and make no real
progress), no one from the Bureau of Reclamation — the federal
agency tasked with operating Lake Mead and Lake Powell — has
attended those negotiation sessions since the Trump
administration took office. In fact, Reclamation still doesn’t
even have a commissioner. The administration has been dragging
its feet on getting the leadership in place to finally break
this logjam. And time is running short. –Written by Arizona Republic columnist Joanna
Allhands.
Assemblymember Chris Rogers has introduced his bill, Assembly
Bill 263, which aims to protect salmon populations in the
Klamath River watershed while also providing local agricultural
operations with certainty regarding river flows. This was
introduced in partnership with the Karuk and Yurok Tribes, as
well as the California Coastkeeper Alliance. … Bill 263 would
allow specified emergency regulations adopted by the board for
the Scott River and Shasta River watersheds to remain in effect
until permanent rules establishing and implementing long-term
instream flow requirements for these watersheds are enacted.
According to Assemblyman Rogers, this measure is crucial for
protecting salmon populations in the Klamath River watershed
while providing certainty regarding river flows.
… President Ryan Walker of the Siskiyou County Farm
Bureau says farmers have concerns about the regulations and how
it could affect their profits.
The Trump administration and Mexican officials had a positive
meeting Monday night on addressing sewage flowing into
California and are developing plans to address the decades-old
issue, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said Tuesday. Zeldin,
speaking at the Marine Corps base in San Diego, said he had a
90-minute conversation with Mexican Environment Secretary
Alicia Bárcena and both sides agreed to collaborate on steps to
repair and upgrade an international sewage treatment plant that
cleanses Mexican wastewater before it enters the United States.
… Major infrastructure upgrades agreed on in 2018 and funded
through the U.S.-Mexico trade agreement negotiated by Trump
during his first term aren’t yet finished, allowing billions of
gallons of raw sewage to reach the Tijuana River Valley and
eventually the ocean.
Drought and climate change are impacting water supplies around
the world. But desalination — pulling fresh, drinkable water
from saltwater— can offer some relief. Desalination technology
has existed for a while; dry countries like Israel, Saudi
Arabia and Spain have used it for years. Most desalination
technology uses a lot of energy and leaves behind a toxic
byproduct: all the salt extracted from the water. Scientists
and entrepreneurs are working to improve its capabilities, from
moving the process offshore to running mobile desalination hubs
on solar power. One of those entrepreneurs is Robert
Bergstrom, CEO of OceanWell, based in California. The company
is testing desalination pods at a reservoir near Los Angeles.
Eventually, the pods will go into the ocean to create fresh
water.
Outside of major cities like Fresno and Clovis, drinking-water
quality for San Joaquin Valley residents can be dicey. The
Valley is full of examples of rural water systems failing to
either produce enough supply or deliver fresh water that is not
tainted by contaminants, be they manufactured, like farming
chemicals, or naturally occurring elements in local soils like
arsenic. … Now, Rep. David Valadao, a Republican from
Hanford, is teaming up with Rep. Norma Torres, a Democratic
legislator from Southern California, on a new bill that would
amend the federal Safe Drinking Water Act by adding a special
focus on nitrate and arsenic pollution in groundwater. The
amendment would authorize the federal government to allocate
$15 million a year in grants to clean up failing water systems
in rural communities.
The California State Water Resources Control Board heard an
update on implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act, which requires local agencies to bring
groundwater basins into balance by 2040 and 2042. …
Since 2023, the California Department of Water Resources has
determined that plans for seven basins were inadequate. In
March 2023, it referred six basins to the state water board for
intervention. The state water board may consider probation for
the Delta-Mendota, Chowchilla and Pleasant Valley subbasins
later this year. In his update to the board last week,
Paul Gosselin, DWR deputy director for sustainable groundwater
management, said the two drivers that led to the 2014 passage
of SGMA were high rates of land subsidence and thousands of
wells that went dry during the drought. He said subsidence
remains a significant issue that affects infrastructure.
For months, Los Angeles city officials and an outside
contractor have worked to ensure that the Santa Ynez Reservoir,
the 117-million-gallon water complex in the heart of Pacific
Palisades, could return to service by early May. Since early
2024, the reservoir had sat empty due to tears in the cover
that floats across its surface. The reservoir was empty during
the Jan. 7 Palisades fire, sparking anger from residents and
prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom to call for an investigation. With
repairs complete, crews with the Los Angeles Department of
Water and Power were refilling the reservoir last week when
they discovered further tears and “pinhole sized leaks” in the
floating cover. As a result, DWP confirmed Wednesday that
the reservoir will have to be drained, again, so that crews can
fix the floating cover. DWP said they expected the repairs to
take three to four weeks, with the reservoir now estimated to
come back online by mid- to late June.
… As of Monday, the National Science Foundation had canceled
more than 400 active awards, according to a list obtained by
The New York Times. The decision comes after months of scrutiny
of the agency, including a report released by Senator Ted Cruz,
Republican of Texas, last October and, in February, an internal
review of awards containing words related to diversity, equity
and inclusion, or D.E.I. … Last Thursday, the magazine
Nature reported that all new research grants by the agency had
been frozen, as ordered by the Department of Government
Efficiency, or DOGE. The N.S.F. declined to confirm the
freezing of new awards or what role, if any, DOGE had in the
action. On Friday, the N.S.F. went further, canceling grants
supporting ongoing research.
President Donald Trump’s efforts to free fishermen from
regulatory red tape are tying up the very people he seeks to
unburden as thousands of small and medium-size operators begin
feeling the weight of the president’s NOAA wrecking ball.
“We’re seeing the whole system grind to a halt and fall apart,”
said Meredith Moore, director of the fish conservation program
at Ocean Conservancy, which has tracked the Trump
administration’s fisheries rulemaking since Feb. 1. …
Slash-and-burn downsizing, fishermen and experts say, is
eroding NOAA’s ability to perform basic functions — like
opening or closing a fishery, updating a fishery management
plan, completing a stock assessment or engaging with regional
advisory councils to ensure it’s following the latest science.
The management rules are effectively stop-and-go lights on the
fisheries highway. Without them, fishing boats remain dockside
and fishermen lose critical income.
… America’s wetlands were historically viewed as useless
areas that stood in the way of development. More than half of
the 221 million acres of wetlands that existed when Europeans
settled have been destroyed, and six states—California,
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, and Ohio—have lost at least
85 percent of their wetlands, according to the US Fish and
Wildlife Service (FWS). Wetlands act as “natural sponges,”
absorbing up to an estimated 1.5 million gallons of water per
acre, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, and they provide more than half of America’s
$5.9 billion seafood harvest, including trout, bass, crab,
shrimp, and oysters. They also filter pollutants from the water
and sequester carbon dioxide. About half of our endangered and
threatened species on wetlands. … And yet, the
destruction continues. Between 2009 and 2019, the United States
lost about 1,047 square miles of wetlands, a 2024 FWS report
notes—an area roughly the size of Rhode Island.
In Sacramento, even an inch of rain can lead to a much more
complicated problem underground. The city is one of only two in
California and four on the West Coast still operating a
combined sewer system—a century-old design where stormwater and
sewage flow through the same pipes. As climate challenges
intensify, modernizing and maintaining the system is a 24/7
job. The history of Sacramento’s combined sewer system (CSS)
stretches across 7,500 acres in neighborhoods like downtown,
east Sacramento, Oak Park and Land Park. The system serves
300,000 residents, at least ten times the population when it
was built. “These systems were never meant to keep up with the
type of rainfall we’re seeing today,” said Carlos Eliason, a
spokesperson for the city’s sewage operations.
A bill to exempt some housing projects from a controversial
California law that pro-building activists blame for slowing
down development cleared its first legislative hurdle this
week. On Monday, the State Assembly’s Natural Resources
Committee approved AB 609, introduced by Assemblymember Buffy
Wicks (D-Berkeley), which would exempt infill housing projects
built within existing cities from review under the California
Environmental Quality Act. … In recent years, CEQA has become
a political lightning rod as housing activists have argued
it has been used to slow or stop housing projects from
moving forward, while defenders say it hasn’t played a
major role in deterring housing production in California.
… But not everyone is on board with the proposed
changes. “We just have blinders on in terms of how much good
CEQA — and looking at the environmental reviews — has done to
preserve safety and safety for water and safety from fire,”
said Susan Kirsch, president of Catalysts for Local Control.
Fresno Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula will host a town hall
Thursday evening to rally opposition against CEMEX’s proposed
blast mine along the San Joaquin River, a project critics warn
could contaminate groundwater and damage critical habitat. The
April 24 event at the River Center will feature presentations
on the environmental impacts of the mining giant’s expansion
plans and highlight Arambula’s legislation aimed at blocking
the project. … “The CEMEX Rockfield Expansion poses a serious
threat to wildlife, water quality, air quality, and the
long-term vision for the San Joaquin River Parkway. This is a
critical moment for our community to get informed, get
involved, and make your voices heard,” the flyer for the event
reads.
Jay Gandhi, a retired federal judge who served as the mediator
in settlements with Pacific Gas & Electric, related to the
Camp, Butte and North Bay fires, is joining a lawsuit against
Los Angeles’ Department of Water and Power. … Though he is
experienced in mediating wildfire settlement negotiations, this
time, it is more personal – Gandhi and his family lost their
home in the Palisades fire in January. … Gandhi joins a
suit filed on Jan. 13, which now represents more than 750 fire
plaintiffs. Current U.S. District Court Judge Dean Pregerson,
who also lost his home in the fire, also joined the lawsuit.
The suit focuses on the lack of water in the
Palisades, alleging that two reservoirs key to
public use in the area were not full, and claims that the LADWP
left overhead power lines energized, instead of doing a public
safety shutoff, which other major utility companies in the
state do during red flag warnings.
Water managers in the Klamath Basin say, for the first time
since 2019, there will be enough water to meet everyone’s
demands this year. An unusually wet winter has been a relief
after a tough drought period. The Bureau of Reclamation
released its annual operations plan on Monday,
allocating 330,000 acre-feet of water to farmers from Upper
Klamath Lake. Water is prioritized first to protect endangered
species in the lake and river. Next, water is allocated to
farmers, and finally, it can go to wildlife refuges.
… The agency released a new plan last year that outlines
water management for the Klamath Basin over the next five
years. The removal of the dams on the Klamath River, along with
new data, has prompted the need for the plan, according to
the Bureau.
A major California water lifeline serving more than 600,000
residents is on the brink of being shut down by one of
America’s largest utility companies – and now its fate may lie
in the hands of Donald Trump. Since 1922, the century-old
Potter Valley Project has diverted water from Northern
California’s Eel River into the Russian River, serving as a
critical source of water for farms and communities across
Mendocino, Sonoma, Marin and Lake counties. However,
PG&E announced plans to fully dismantle the project, citing
financial losses and aging infrastructure – a move that sparked
controversy across the region, SF Gate reported. In a rare
twist, the federal government is now stepping into the local
water battle, as the Trump administration reviews whether or
not to block the shutdown.
We have previously written on the evolving risks associated
with PFAS—also known as “forever chemicals”—and their
implications for policyholders navigating environmental
liabilities involving both PFAS and PFAS-related chemicals
(i.e., fluorinated chemicals that do not fit the definition of
PFAS). Our prior analyses explored coverage strategies and
regulatory enforcement trends. With regulatory activity and
litigation continuing to accelerate, we are circling back to
provide an updated look at the regulatory and legal landscape
surrounding PFAS, including recent federal developments,
insurer responses and practical guidance for policyholders
navigating this complex and high-stakes area. … Since our
last insurance roundup in October 2023, there have been
significant developments in PFAS regulation, litigation and
insurance coverage about which policyholders should be aware.
This blog post provides an inexhaustive overview of some of the
more significant developments.
