Professor Deborah Sivas spoke with BNA's Amena H. Saiyid about a missed deadline by the EPA to finalize vessel general permits for ballast water and other incidental discharges.

The Environmental Protection Agency did not meet a March 15 deadline to finalize vessel general permits for ballast water and other incidental discharges and sought a two-week extension from environmental groups involved in a legal settlement, the groups told BNA.

EPA confirmed March 15 that “the final vessel general permit will not be issued today” and deferred to the Justice Department for further questions.

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“We just got off the phone with EPA, and they asked us for two more weeks to complete the interagency review,” Deborah Sivas, a Stanford Law School professor who represented the center in the settlement, told BNA March 15.

Sivas said EPA could only seek an extension if all parties agreed to it. CBD and the National Wildlife Federation agreed to the extension, while attempts were being made to reach the attorney for the NRDC to get her agreement, she said.

“We expect NRDC will agree, as two weeks is no big deal,” she said.