EPA Delays Effort to Protect Earth from Dirt

The chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors of America Stephen E. Sandherr issued the following statement in response to the decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to withdraw proposed “numeric limits” on the amount of dirt the agency will allow in stormwater from construction sites:

“The fact that the EPA recognizes the serious flaws in the data supporting its efforts to impose a rigid one-size-fits all limit on the amount of dirt in rainwater leaving construction sites is encouraging. Indeed contractors are already required to take significant measures to ensure that dirt – clean uncontaminated dirt – does not escape from project sites. Setting a specific limit on how much dirt should be in rainwater will only force contractors to spend billions more on new dirt-busting measures that may not work expose firms to costly lawsuits from outside groups and put them at risk of receiving tens of thousands in daily fines.

“Unfortunately the EPA is only seeking to delay imposing its new mud rule instead of abandoning the idea all together. In other words this administration remains committed to the idea that protecting the Earth from dirt is more important than protecting the economy from costly prescriptive and questionable new regulatory measures.”

Click here to view a video of AGC of America’s Mike Kennedy talking more about the mud rule.