'It's completely unacceptable that EPA has, for decades, ignored the law and failed to require modern wastewater pollution controls for oil refineries and petrochemical and plastics plants,' said EnviroIntegrity deputy director Jen Duggan.
A coalition of 13 green groups on Tuesday sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to set limits on harmful chemicals that petroleum-based industries dump into the nation's waterways on a daily basis.
In 2021 alone, the 81 oil refineries in the U.S. that discharge into rivers, streams, and estuaries released 1.6 billion pounds of chlorides, sulfates, and other dissolved solids harmful to aquatic life; 15.
According to EIP and CBD, the suit challenges the EPA's refusal in January to update its"outdated and weak water pollution control technology standards for seven key industrial sectors: petroleum refineries, inorganic and organic chemical manufacturers, and factories that manufacture plastics, fertilizer, pesticides, and nonferrous metals."
"The Clean Water Act requires the EPA to limit discharges of industrial pollutants based on the best available wastewater treatment methods, and to tighten those limits at least once every five years where data show treatment technologies have improved," two of the plaintiffs, the Environmental Integrity Project and the Center for Biological Diversity , explained in aHowever, the organizations lamented,"the agency has never set limits for many pollutants and has failed to update...
Tuesday's lawsuit against the Biden administration was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco. EIP, which coordinated the action, was joined by CBD, Clean Water Action, Waterkeeper Alliance,, Environment America, Bayou City Waterkeeper, Black Warrior Riverkeeper, Healthy Gulf, San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper, San Francisco Baykeeper, the Surfrider Foundation, and Tennessee Riverkeeper.
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