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LaJuana Wilcher to speak at national water conference
by Mandy Hicks
Attorney LaJuana Wilcher is speaking this week at the National Clean Water Law Seminar in Las Vegas. The seminar is designed for public agency attorneys and managers, and is offered by the National Association of Clean Water Agencies.
LaJuana and two other attorneys will serve on a panel on regulations that affect clean water agencies. The session is called “Stealth Regulation: A Mountain or Molehill?”
A summary of the panel discussion is below.
Clean water agencies are facing an increasingly aggressive regulatory environment. Some major policy decisions – oftentimes with significant permit implications – are being made not through a formal rulemaking process but through informal communications from regulatory agencies. Oftentimes referred to as “rulemaking by guidance,” this approach can include outlining new requirements through guidance documents, memos, or other “non-binding” communications, but can also occur when EPA pressures states behind the scenes to take certain actions that are actually driven by EPA’s regulatory preferences. Formal rulemaking incorporates transparency and public participation, which can bolster the quality and legitimacy of a regulation but can also slow the regulatory process and result in costly delays for regulated entities. This roundtable discussion will strip away the rhetoric and get to the heart of the issue of regulatory overreach. Experts will focus on ways to identify when regulatory overreach is occurring and legal strategies to deal with it, as well as on practical approaches to advancing the clean water sector’s position in dealings with EPA.
About LaJuana Wilcher
