DOT Proposes Updates on Environmental Review Procedures Including Climate
Corps Refrains from Adding More Restrictions, Limits on Use of General Permits
AGC members, particularly its highway contractors, may breathe a sigh of relief when learning that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized a rule to relax a mandate for smaller cities to install near-road nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions monitoring stations. Indeed, it would not have been easy to administer a comprehensive monitoring network near roadways and obtain results that can be easily understood. Bad data could have pushed more areas into “nonattainment,” which puts highway/transit funding and new construction in jeopardy. AGC was also concerned about the increased use of roadway concentration data in future standard-setting processes or to inform transportation planning and decision making. (For instance, AGC recently responded unfavorably to a U.S. DOT proposal that contemplates measuring greenhouse gas emissions from on-road mobile sources as a way of evaluating highway performance.)
Join Us at the Bellagio Hotel on March 9, 2017
AGC Gets Results in 2016, Braces for More Water Rules in Early 2017
AGC is planning several events in the coming year that are of interest to environmental professionals in the industry. Please save the dates for these special events in 2017 and stay tuned for more information and exciting updates.
Effective December 19, 2016; Ripe for Repeal in 2017
AGC members can now receive a discount off the non-member pricing for a selection of stormwater-related training courses that International Erosion Control Association Region One (IECA) provides online. AGC and IECA have a long history of working together including a partnering charter in the early 2000s. IECA also has been a recurring industry partner for AGC’s annual Contractors Environmental Conference. This new cooperative agreement demonstrates the organizations’ commitment to provide quality educational resources for industry professionals.
But Ninth Circuit Compelled EPA to Institute Formal BMP Review Process
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) recently issued Regulatory Guidance Letter (RGL) 16-01 that clarifies for the Corps’ field staff and the regulated public when it may be appropriate to issue an approved jurisdictional determination (AJD), as opposed to a preliminary jurisdictional determination (PJD), or not make any determination at all regarding whether a particular tract of land contains federal “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS). A decision that WOTUS are present on particular site makes the property subject to federal control and permitting programs under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (CWA), the Rivers and Harbors Act or possibly both.