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ARTICLE · 28 JANUARY 2021

Surface Transportation Board Acts To Prevent A Patchwork Quilt Of State Regulatory Requirements

The Clean Water Act (CWA) imposes environmental permitting requirements on "point sources."

United StatesTransport
  • The Clean Water Act (CWA) imposes environmental permitting requirements on "point sources."
  • One district court has found that a rail car moving across the country could be a point source, potentially subject to state environmental regulation.
  • If states were able to impose different permitting requirements, the net effect would be a severe disruption to the interstate rail transportation system – potentially terminating some categories of service on which rail customers rely today.
  • The Surface Transportation Board (STB) provides firm guidance that state-by-state regulation using those permitting requirements is preempted under the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act (ICCTA).

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