Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform v. EPA

EPA agreed to issue a proposed rule regarding issuance of Hazardous Substance Worst Case Discharge Planning Regulations within 24 months and to take final action within 30 months after publication of the proposed rule.

Environmental groups filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the Southern District of New York to compel the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to issue regulations mandated by the Clean Water Act to require "non-transportation-related substantial-harm facilities to play to prevent, mitigate, and respond to worst-case spills of hazardous substances." The plaintiffs alleged that 1990 amendments to the Clean Water Act required EPA to issue the regulations by 1992. The complaint also included allegations about recent spills of hazardous substances that had occurred during adverse weather, including during flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey and during heavy rainfalls in Alabama, Ohio, and Tennessee. The complaint alleged that "[t]he need for regulations to protect communities from the risk of chemical spills during severe weather has only increased since Congress mandated worst-case spill regulations in 1990" due to climate change impacts such as sea-level rise and increasingly frequent and severe weather disasters.