The EPA has misplaced its bid to toss a lawsuit concerning the federal environmental company allegedly failing to guard three Boston-area rivers from stormwater air pollution.
A decide in U.S. District Court this week denied the Environmental Protection Agency’s movement to dismiss a go well with filed by Charles River Watershed Association and Conservation Law Foundation — which goals to carry the EPA accountable for implementing stormwater runoff protections within the Charles, Mystic, and Neponset rivers.
The teams sued the EPA final fall, accusing the feds of failing to manage harmful stormwater runoff within the three Boston-area rivers. The lawsuit seeks to curb stormwater air pollution from business, industrial, and institutional properties.
“Stormwater pollution is one of the greatest threats to urban rivers, including the Charles — polluted runoff degrades the river ecosystem and can cause rampant invasive species growth, toxic cyanobacteria blooms, and even fish kills,” mentioned Zeus Smith, coverage advocate for Charles River Watershed Association.
“As climate change brings increased precipitation and hotter temperatures like those experienced this month, impacts are only exacerbated,” Smith added. “This toxic runoff degrades ecosystems and disrupts or entirely prevents our communities from being able to enjoy these otherwise beautiful natural resources.”
The EPA introduced virtually a 12 months in the past that it could train its authority below the Clean Water Act to require non-public properties with massive impervious surfaces to scrub up their stormwater air pollution, however the company has but to challenge the required permits.
Large impervious properties, together with huge field shops and malls, solely make up 20% of the Charles River watershed, but are the supply of as much as over 50% of the stormwater air pollution.
“For years, we attempted collaboration with EPA, requesting that the Agency issue permits to help clean and restore the Charles, Mystic, and Neponset Rivers,” mentioned Heather Govern, VP of Clean Air and Water at Conservation Law Foundation.
“This court decision is the victory we needed for clean water in Greater Boston, as it puts EPA on the hook to issue draft permits by September 2024,” Govern added.
The go well with will now be paused till September 2024 to provide the EPA the chance to challenge these permits.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, which litigates in circumstances regarding environmental and different legal guidelines below the division’s purview and sometimes on behalf of the EPA, declined to touch upon the continued lawsuit.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”