Heightened Risk To The Regulated Community: U.S. EPA Overfiling

In what could portend significant risk to the regulated community, a recent "overfiling" by U.S. EPA in connection with a Clean Air Act (CAA) settlement between the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) and a steel plant should at a minimum cause the regulated community to be cautious when entering into settlement agreements with state regulators. On January 24, 2022, U.S. EPA Region 6 filed a  Notice of Violation (NOV) alleging that a steel plant in Louisiana was emitting excess hydrogen sulfide, sulfuric acid mist and sulfur dioxide in violation of the plant's CAA Title V permit. 

Back in October 2021, the Tulane Environmental Clinic had filed a formal request that U.S. EPA exercise its overfiling and supervisory authority pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7413(a)(a), (b), and (d) on the basis that the LDEQ settlement agreement imposed insufficient penalties and mitigation measures to ensure future compliance. It is interesting to note that the U.S. EPA NOV