EPA’s “parade-of-horribles”

Seventeen years after EPA first told Idaho to not remove mercury water quality standards that protect fish, a federal judge in Idaho ruled that EPA is on the hook to protect Idaho salmon from mercury pollution.  NWEA filed the lawsuit seeking EPA action in 2013 based on EPA’s eventual disapproval of Idaho’s action, a disapproval that placed the burden for fixing the problem on the federal government.

It’s stunning that this many decades after passage of the Clean Water Act, we’re still having to litigate the simplest of concepts, but here we are.  As the court made clear, Congress left no doubt that old water quality standards that EPA has found do not protect fish or human health must be replaced by EPA.

The court rejected what it called EPA’s “parade-of-horribles” argument that it was too much work to follow the law.  Next up is determining the time frame for establishing a protective mercury standard to protect Idaho fish.