US EPA, State Agencies, and Private Attorneys Meet in Chicago, Discuss Environment

There can be little doubt that the philosophy at the US EPA has undergone a dramatic change under President Obama. To more fully understand the new priorities at the US EPA as well as the current priorities of the state environmental agencies of the Great Lakes states (aka EPA Region 5), the American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy and Resources held a day and a half conference in Chicago: State and EPA Perspectives on Environmental Issues In Region 5.

In what could be one of the preeminent environmental conferences in the Great Lakes region (having played a significant role in the conference I might be a bit biased), the program involved exclusively government speakers, including Commissioner Paul Eger of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Although the conference featured numerous panels discussing aspects of environmental law from Resource Conservations and Recovery Act (RCRA) to the Great Lakes Interstate Compact and everything in between, the two most important presentations were the keynote speech by Bharat Mather, Acting Regional Administrator US EPA Region 5, and the State Environmental Directors Roundtable.

Mather spoke briefly regarding the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), the state-federal environmental partnership and the goals of his new boss Lisa Jackson. Discussing ARRA, Mather noted that the EPA has obligated 72% of its ARRA funds and that the primary issues with implementing ARRA are reporting, the Buy American provision, compliance with the Davis-Bacon Act requirement, and funding of green issues. On the state-federal partnership, he stressed that EPA’s role is oversight of the state agencies and that the focus should be how the two can work together to get things done. Turning to the goals of Administrator Jackson, Mather stressed four areas: 1) science must be the backbone for EPA; 2) EPA decisions must follow the rule of law; 3) EPA actions must be transparent; and 4) environmental justice should be considered in every EPA decision.

Mather then turned to EPA priorities in Region 5. The number one concern, he said, is climate change. This certainly should come as no surprise given the public announcements from Administrator Jackson. But it does reinforce the reality that the question is not whether greenhouse gases will be regulated in the near future, but what the vehicle for regulation will be. Among the other named priorities he discussed were new source permits, reducing diesel emissions, managing overall chemical risks, hazardous waste cleanup, and water quality. He noted particular interest in Minnesota when discussing the asbestos risk in mining and managing risks from perfluorocarbons. He also noted that one of the water quality priorities is addressing water nutrient levels in the Mississippi River as it relates to Gulf of Mexico hypoxia.

Following the keynote speech, Bert Frey, Deputy Regional Counsel US EPA Region 5, hosted a roundtable discussion with the directors of all six state environmental agencies (Indiana DEM, Illinois EPA, Michigan DEQ, Minnesota PCA, Ohio EPA, and Wisconsin DNR). Almost universally, the director concerns involved addressing climate change, improving water quality/wastewater management, and finding a way to accomplish these goals in the face of an ever-shrinking budget. The truly amazing theme in the roundtable was the staggering cost that we face to update our water infrastructure and to deal with storm water management. Time and again, the state directors would note that the tens or hundreds of millions of ARRA dollars dedicated to state revolving water funds did not meet the needs for infrastructure updates (all told, the EPA received $6 billion for water infrastructure, which has been allowed to the states and US territories.

It was not lost on many of us that this was the first time there had been a Region 5 environmental conference since 1999. After listening to the government attorneys and agency personnel speak for a day and half, it is clear that the days of market self-regulation have come to an end. In Minnesota and across the nation, we can expect to see new environmental regulation and a renewed focus on enforcement of existing regulations.

Submitted by Michael J. Mergens

Michael J. Mergens is an attorney at Larkin Hoffman Daly & Lindgren in Minneapolis. His practice includes a broad range of real estate matters, such as environmental permitting and litigation, land use approvals and disputes, and general real estate disputes. He has devoted much of his practice to the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, which has begun to arise in the environmental permitting processes of various state and federal regulatory bodies. He also tracks the potential for regulations under the Clean Air Act.