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Clean Water Act Michael Formica, JD'98

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CLEAN WATER ACT (CWA)-RELATED WORK

Formica represents hog farmers fromacross the country before federal and state regulatory agencies, focusing on CWA issues, and also handles water-quality issues for the broader agriculture sector. For general U.S. business sectors and the agriculture sector, he was a primary author for comments and negotiation with the EPA over the Clean Water Rule and is involved in related litigation. He also has been involved with the EPA’s Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation rule under the CWA and with litigation connected to the Chesapeake Bay.

Formica is working with the EPA in the Nutrient Recycling Challenge, an initiative to develop technologies that recycle nutrients from livestock waste to help reduce water pollution and create marketable products.

TRENDS AND BIG ISSUES

“The biggest issue the country will face is its aging infrastructure and associated problems, both in providing clean drinking water … and in protecting water quality generally as older urban areas continue to shed populations, yet still need to invest tens of billions of dollars to repair and replace 100-plus-year-old sewage and stormwater systems.

“We are now leading to a new phase, where attention is focusing on nontraditional sources of pollution that come not from point sources but from lawns, golf courses, forests streets, farms, etc., all of which are exacerbated by limits on new growth and development in urban areas and fights between urban and rural areas over water-quality challenges,” Formica says.