Litigation partner Matthew Williamson and environment associate David McGrath authored an article for Bloomberg Law discussing how the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC)’s 2019 Violations Scoring Procedure (VSP) upended enforcement proceedings and could lead to more litigation against the state DTSC. In the article, the authors highlight that because VSP regulations make it much more difficult to resolve violations with the DTSC, and that the organization rarely retracts or withdraws violations, many companies will be forced to challenge DTSC violations through litigation. They also note that “because VSP scores remain on a facility’s tally for 10 years, even small increases over time can lead to materially adverse permitting consequences. Challenging each score at the time of issuance is the only way, under the current regulatory framework, to avoid the long-term consequences that arise under the VSP regulations.”
Read the article here.