AGC contests stormwater rules.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) have filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to contest a recent California district court ruling that requires the EPA to issue an "effluent limitation guideline" (ELG) for the "Construction and Development" (C&D) industry.

Such an ELG would set uniform, nationwide limits on the sediment that stormwater can lawfully discharge from construction sites.

After years of analysis and outreach, EPA concluded that additional rules are unnecessary, given the evolution of the existing stormwater program. "EPA recognizes that there is no 'one-size-fits-all' approach to stormwater runoff," said AGC CEO Stephen E. Sandherr. "The better way to protect the environment is to allow state and local authorities to tailor the details of their construction runoff programs to state and local conditions, and not to impose a rigid and inflexible federal standard."

Siding with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and two states, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California held that EPA had a "nondiscretionary" duty to issue a C&D ELG, and that the agency's failure to take that expensive step violated the Clean Water Act (Natural Resources Defense