Water

Regulatory and legislative disputes over the clean water and safe drinking water acts have major implications for dischargers, utilities and others, and our Water section features the latest news from EPA, the courts and Congress.

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Regulatory and legislative disputes over the clean water and safe drinking water acts have major implications for dischargers, utilities and others, and our Water section features the latest news from EPA, the courts and Congress.

EPA Tweaks Final ‘Good Samaritan’ Guide But Eyes Case-By-Case Reviews

EPA’s final guidance addressing permittees’ financial assurance requirements under its Good Samaritan mine cleanup program seeks to address some concerns raised by industry groups regarding certain definitions, clarifying the definition of “low risk” projects and broadening certain financial assurance considerations. But on some issues, such as determining whether a project is “low risk” and thus eligible for the law’s liability protections, the agency said it would rely on case-by-case determinations. EPA on Oct. 22 issued its final guidance on financial...

Free-Market Group Urges Permanent Approval Of Mine Cleanup Law

A free-market group is urging Congress to make permanent the 2024 law that created a limited EPA pilot program to remediate abandoned hardrock mine sites, touting the law’s early implementation as a global model for other mine sites, while praising its liability protections and allowances for recovery of critical minerals from mine waste. ConservAmerica, which advocates for free-market environmental solutions, issued an Oct. 14 white paper that urges Congress to permanently authorize the Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines...

Final Guidance

Response To Comments


Waterkeeper Seeks FOIA Records On EPA’s SDWA PFAS Rule Changes

Environmentalists are questioning EPA’s transparency in its decision to delay and partially rescind landmark drinking water limits for several PFAS, filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking a range of records related to its planned rule changes, including a stalled risk assessment that may undercut agency efforts to ease the limits. Waterkeeper Alliance Oct. 21 filed a FOIA request with EPA asking for records from Jan. 20 to the present related to the agency’s drinking water rule for...

Meat Sector Seeks To Intervene In Suit Over Slaughterhouse ELG Withdrawal

Meat industry groups are seeking to intervene in environmentalists’ suit challenging the Trump EPA’s withdrawal of a Biden-era proposal establishing tough effluent limits to curb nutrient and other releases from meat and poultry product (MPP) facilities, asserting that their direct interests in the litigation are not fully represented by the agency. A coalition of industry groups, labeled the MPP Coalition, filed an Oct. 14 motion to intervene in Cape Fear River Watch, et al., v. EPA, et al. , in...

New York Lawmakers Press Hochul To Revive 401 Pipeline Fight With Trump

Ten New York Democrats are urging Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) to renew a Clean Water Act (CWA) section 401 certification fight over a natural gas pipeline with the Trump administration, a move that could provide new fodder for EPA efforts to narrow the scope of states’ 401 authority, though Hochul may be poised to make a different deal over the pipeline. The delegation sent her an Oct. 15 letter that notes that the state has thrice declined to certify that...

Parties Settle Novel Prop. 65 Suit Against Chrome Platers’ PFAS Discharges

Environmentalists are settling their novel Proposition 65 lawsuit that alleges two chrome-plating firms unlawfully discharged PFAS into drinking water sources, settlements that rely on the law’s rarely used prohibition on unlawful discharges to win soon-to-be-released agreements. The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) “will be settling with Teikuro Corp. in the next few weeks and mediating with Electro-Coatings of California later this month,” according to an attorney representing environmentalists. “I can’t disclose yet, but hopefully we’ll have a signed agreement with...

Key House Democrat Presses Zeldin On Delayed PFNA Risk Assessment

A key House Democratic appropriator is pressing EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to release a delayed risk assessment for perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), a long-chain PFAS linked to developmental harms, questioning its delay this spring at the same time Zeldin moved to rescind drinking water limits for PFNA and other PFAS. “The delay in issuing the PFNA report coincided with EPA’s decision, in May of this year, to rescind some PFAS Safe Drinking Water Act regulations, one of which happens to be...

EPA, OIG At Odds Over Interpretation Of Audit Sufficiency For SRF Programs

EPA and its Office of Inspector General (OIG) are at odds over the watchdog arm’s finding that the agency lacks sufficient clarity on its state revolving fund programs’ (SRF) operations to identify potential waste, fraud and abuse without audited financial statements of the program, despite OIG declining to provide recommendations to the agency. OIG issued an Oct. 15 report titled “Audit of Compliance with the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Financial Statement Audit Requirements,” which aimed to...

IPI Seeks To Bolster PFAS Research, Fearing Studies Underestimate Effects

A progressive think tank is urging federal and state policymakers to pursue research into both non-legacy PFAS compounds as well as exposure pathways other than drinking water, raising concerns that existing studies underestimate the significant economic and other impacts from the chemicals and prohibit a class-based approach to regulations. “By addressing these research gaps, policymakers will be better equipped to conduct robust cost-benefit analyses, leading to more informed and effective regulations that minimize the economic and societal burden of PFAS...

EPA Argues AI Energy Demand, Future Grid Needs Justify ELG Delay Plan

EPA is citing several studies detailing projected energy demand from artificial intelligence (AI) growth and grid reliability needs to justify its proposal to extend deadlines associated with a Biden-era rule governing power plants’ effluent limitation guidelines (ELGs), likely serving as the basis for future substantive revisions to the rule. The agency on Sept. 29 issued a proposed rule and companion direct final rule extending -- in some cases by as much as six years -- compliance and other deadlines in...

Environmentalists Warn EPA’s ‘Extreme’ ELG Delays Lack CWA Justification

Environmentalists are urging EPA to drop its plan delaying implementation of the Biden-era rule governing power plants’ effluent limitation guidelines (ELGs), warning that the “extreme” delays lack justification under the Clean Water Act (CWA) and that EPA failed to assess its adverse effects or show the delays are needed to bolster energy supply. “EPA’s current proposal to delay the most stringent requirements in the ELGs by five years is very extreme and must be rejected,” Thomas Cmar, an attorney at...

OW’s Publication Pause At Odds With EPA Clearance Policy, Staffers Say

EPA’s Office of Water (OW) is pulling back peer-reviewed staff research ahead of publication in scientific journals in order to undergo an unprecedented level of political review that is at odds with the agency’s clearance policy, current and former staff say though an EPA spokesperson says the agency is not barring staff from publishing. EPA staff say they were ordered late last month to pull back any research that has not been published, even if it was already approved internally,...

NACWA’s Comments

Local Authorities’ Letter

Scheduling Order

Status Report

Sen. Bucco’s Comments


NASEM Report Urges EPA To Finalize, Update Cumulative Impact Framework

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) is urging EPA to update and finalize a Biden-era interim framework on how to assess cumulative pollution and other impacts, though the agency says it has “paused” work on the issue. NASEM’s ad hoc committee on the issue released its Oct. 9 report titled “State of the Science and the Future of Cumulative Impact Assessment,” which provides recommendations on the state of the science surrounding cumulative impacts...

POTWs Fear New Jersey PFAS Deals Curb Recoveries, Undercut Authorities

Wastewater and other local agencies are raising concerns over New Jersey’s landmark proposed PFAS cleanup settlements with major chemical manufacturers, urging state regulators to reconsider the deals’ broad liability waiver that they say prevents them from recouping adequate funds and undercuts their pre-treatment and other enforcement powers. “Simply stated, the proposed [judicial consent orders (JCO)] would grant 3M an essentially unquantifiable amount of PFAS liability protection[] without demanding nearly enough money in return to address the water contamination caused by...

State Wetlands Group Eliminates Key Slots After EPA Deobligates Grants

The National Association of Wetland Managers (NAWM), a group that seeks to “build capacity” for state and tribes to protect wetlands, is eliminating four positions and its current executive director is stepping down, due to funding challenges after EPA deobligated several grants and sought to cut ties with the group. Maria Stelk, the departing executive director, announced the changes in an Oct. 6 statement that blames the Trump administration’s “disdain” toward nonprofits that led to the grants’ deobligation. “NAWM must...

California Eyes Drinking Water Limit For PFHxS As EPA Seeks To Drop Standard

California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) is launching a drinking water public health goal (PHG) review for perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), taking a step toward crafting an enforceable standard for the substance as the Trump EPA seeks to rescind its Biden-era drinking water limit for the widely used PFAS. OEHHA announced plans for the first-time PHG in an Oct. 3 notice , which also announced plans to revise the state’s current PHG for arsenic. “PHGs are non-regulatory in...

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