A group of Indiana landowners has filed a petition against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 5’s recent issuance of two Class VI Underground Injection Control Permits to Wabash Carbon Services LLC for carbon sequestration wells linked to a hydrogen and ammonia production facility.
The petitioners argue that the EPA violated the National Environmental Policy Act by not adequately assessing cumulative impacts or considering alternatives, failed to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act by approving an insufficient post-injection site care plan, and made arbitrary decisions in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.
They request that the permits be vacated and call for a review of the EPA’s actions, according to the document.
“EPA has long relied on the ‘functional equivalence doctrine’ to claim that its permitting actions under the SDWA are exempt from NEPA because EPA’s own requirements and those of the SDWA are functionally equivalent to NEPA,” lawyers from Vinson & Elkins wrote in a policy paper last week. “This view has been upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit and the EAB in various UIC challenges.”
