Flint, Michigan, Water Woes Continue for Independent Engineering Company
On Monday, February 7, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan denied in part a professional engineering company’s motion for summary judgment in Walters et al. v. Flint et al., part of the ongoing Flint water litigation. Plaintiffs in the litigation sought to hold the engineering company, which has served as a water engineer for the City of Flint since at least 2011 and had been involved in discussing and planning the city’s possible switch of water source, liable for professional negligence based on the company’s failure to warn the city of its plan’s shortcomings or otherwise recommend corrective measures. (more…)
EPA Takes Two New Actions on PFAS
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took two important actions in late December 2021 related to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a class of chemicals receiving increasing legislative and regulatory scrutiny in recent years. The two actions relate to drinking-water monitoring data and to toxicity and human-health testing data. (more…)
D.C. Circuit Denies Request to Stay Reconsideration of Lead and Copper Drinking Water Rule
On October 27, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied a motion filed by five Republican state attorneys general to stay EPA’s June 2021 rule delaying the effective date of the Lead and Copper Drinking Water Rule promulgated under the Trump administration until December 16, 2021, thereby extended the compliance deadline for the rule by 10 months to October 2024. (more…)