"Several environmental groups are suing federal regulators over what they say is a failure to set safe limits on harmful chemicals pouring into waterways from refineries, including eight facilities in Louisiana that are considered among the nation’s top polluters.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, says the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has done little to curb the half billion gallons of wastewater that flows from refineries to rivers, estuaries and other public waterways each day.

While the tools for treating these pollutants have become better and cheaper over the years, the EPA still holds refineries to standards set decades ago, said Andrew Whitehurst, the water program manager for Healthy Gulf, one of the 13 groups filing the suit."

Tristan Baurick reports for the New Orleans Times-Picayune April 11, 2023. [2]