Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
Gerald F. George
March 13, 2019
One of life’s eternal questions: where do all those golf balls go that are hit into a water hazard? If it was a pond, I knew the answer from my misspent youth – kids sneaking onto the premises at night fished them out of the ponds and sold them to other golfers. But what about Pebble Beach? Those balls went into the ocean!
Synergy Environmental, Inc.
David Robinson, Chris Horan, Brian Loughnane, Brink Young
March 21, 2019
In February, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a new action plan to address a group of emerging contaminants know as per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
This Action Plan describes the EPA’s approach to identifying and understanding PFAS; understanding current PFAS contamination, preventing future contamination and communicating with the public about PFAS.
Lane Powell PC
Eric J. Kodesch and Michael A. Nesteroff
March 15, 2019
The Opportunity Zone tax incentives created by the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 seemed to be a perfect opportunity to spur development of environmentally impaired properties, known as brownfields, in economically distressed communities. But the IRS draft regulations currently under consideration do not appear to allow for inclusion of brownfields in the program. That could mean, for lack of a better description, a real lost opportunity for many communities since brownfields often are in the very areas that the Opportunity Zone program is intended to benefit.
Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Rebecca A. Davis, Jeryl L. Olson and Craig B. Simonsen
March 6, 2019
Seyfarth Synopsis: Under the Trump Administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has fully or partially deleted 22 sites from the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) National Priorities List (NPL). This is the largest number of deletions in one year since 2005.
However, the EPA continues to add sites to the NPL, and added five new sites in the Fall of 2018. Two sites are particularly noteworthy as they were added solely due to a subsurface intrusion pathway. Subsurface intrusion is the migration of hazardous substances or pollutants and contaminants from the unsaturated groundwater zone and/or the surficial groundwater into overlying structures. Vapor intrusion is the most common form of subsurface intrusion, but the intrusion also may be in the form of gas or liquid.