EPA announced last week that it is now accepting applications for grants under its new Innovative Water Infrastructure Workforce Development Grant Program. Applications will be accepted until March 26, 2021.

NACWA was thrilled to congratulate Radhika Fox last week on her appointment as Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Water. Fox will serve as the office’s senior political leader until an Assistant Administrator is nominated by the Biden Administration and confirmed by the Senate.

Days before the start of the new Biden Administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed and issued a pre-publication notice of the 2021 Multi-Sector General Permit (MSGP) for industrial stormwater discharges on January 15.

In one of its last actions before the inauguration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized its guidance memorandum, “Applying the Supreme Court’s County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund Decision in the Clean Water Act Section 402 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit Program.”

In a one-page, per curiam decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit last week overturned the Trump administration’s Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, which loosened carbon dioxide emission guidelines for coal-fired power plants. The rule had been challenged by environmental and health organizations as well as a number of states.