ISSUE: Water Policy Report

House Slated To Delay DOD’s AFFF Phaseout After Panel Blocks Amendment

The House appears slated to approve a defense authorization bill that includes provisions slowing the Defense Department’s (DOD) phase out of PFAS-containing firefighting foam after the Rules Committee rejected amendments that sought to strip the delay as well as other amendments seeking to strengthen PFAS controls. The House began floor consideration of the fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Sept. 9 following a Rules Committee vote the same day that only allowed one amendment related to per- and...

Final MAHA Strategy Urges EPA Deregulation, Echoing Leaked Draft

The Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission has released its final strategy for improving children’s health, urging EPA to deregulate pesticides and farm effluents while sidestepping PFAS concerns, aligning closely with a draft leaked in August. The Sept. 9 report backs away from statements by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. that pesticides, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and other environmental contaminants are central causes of childhood chronic disease, following a lobbying campaign by...

EPA Floats Financial Assurance Guide For ‘Good Samaritan’ Permittees

EPA is taking comment through the end of the week on a guidance clarifying the financial assurances (FA) permit applicants must demonstrate to qualify for a novel, congressionally authorized pilot program that limits environmental liabilities for so-called Good Samaritans that seek to voluntarily clean up hardrock mine sites. The agency’s draft guidance appeared in the Aug. 13 Federal Register and is open for public comments through Sept. 12. The guidance responds to lawmakers’ approval of S. 2781 , which...

EPA, State Officials Clash Over Federal Funds For Environmental Work

SANTA FE, NM -- State regulators and a top Trump EPA official are clashing over the appropriate level of financial support for states to implement core federal environmental laws, with states lobbying Congress to protect these resources while the No. 2 EPA official is renewing claims that states can cope with significantly less funds. EPA’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget “refocused categorical grants where the federal need still exists,” Deputy Administrator David Fotouhi said during Sept. 4 remarks here at...

EPA Rule Agenda Details Plans To Delay, Revise Biden-Era PFAS Measures

The Trump EPA is planning to move ahead with a number of PFAS regulatory policies initiated by the Biden administration though it is expected to scale back the stringency of some of the rulemakings and in general has slowed the schedule for issuing new PFAS rules, according to the spring 2025 Unified Agenda. Released Sept. 4, the Unified Agenda -- the first to be released during President Donald Trump’s second term -- includes plans for a host of per- and...

EPA Plans Oil & Gas ELG Revision As Part Of Broad Deregulatory Agenda

EPA’s Spring 2025 Unified Agenda announces a new rulemaking that could potentially broaden the reach of effluent limitations for the oil and gas extraction category, which currently only allows discharges of produced water in areas west of the 98th meridian, the geographic dividing line between East and West. The measure appears to be the only new rulemaking in the agency’s Sept. 4 unified agenda, which otherwise aligns with sweeping deregulatory efforts the agency has already announced, setting deadlines for measures...

Seeking Deal, California Senator Stalls Bill To Expand CWA Prior To Sackett

A California lawmaker has temporarily shelved an industry-opposed bill to expand the reach of the state’s Clean Water Act to include waterbodies that are no longer subject to federal jurisdiction under the Supreme Court’s Sackett decision, and counter rollbacks of discharge rules under the Trump administration. A spokesman for Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), author of SB 601, tells Inside CalEPA that the bill has been shelved to give the lawmaker more time to cut a deal with...

State Environment Officials Increasingly Grapple With AI Uses, Impacts

SANTA FE, NM -- State environmental regulators are increasingly grappling with the best ways to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into their programs, though officials are expressing a range of reservations about these efforts including how to combat “bias” in such systems and how to best handle the security of the agency’s data. AI-related topics featured prominently at the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) fall meeting that began here Sept. 3, with state officials considering AI to help increase the...

Biosolids PFAS Report Should Reflect More Realistic Conditions, States Say

State regulators are urging the Trump EPA to revise the modeling underpinning the Biden-era draft risk assessment of two legacy PFAS in biosolids to make it more applicable to state-specific conditions and outcomes, cautioning that the assessment’s use of certain risk assumptions and biosolids application rates fails to reflect realistic state practices. But state agencies do not all agree on the direction EPA should take. Some state regulators argue EPA should use stricter risk scenarios, such as accounting for infants...

Lawmakers Seek To Strike Defense Bill Measure Paring Back AFFF Phaseout

Two lawmakers have filed amendments aimed at eliminating a measure pending in the House defense authorization bill that would delay the Defense Department’s (DOD) phaseout of firefighting foam containing PFAS and expand an exemption for using the foam, signaling opposition to an attempt to weaken the phaseout requirements. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) -- co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional PFAS Task Force -- and George Whitesides (D-CA) filed separate but identical amendments to the House Rules Committee that would strike section...

Environmentalists sue to compel ‘worst case’ spill rule

Environmental groups are suing EPA over its failure to issue regulations to prevent and contain hazardous substance spills from non-transportation-related onshore facilities, charging that the agency’s failure to do so is arbitrary and capricious. In an Aug. 28 complaint in Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform, et al., v. EPA , the plaintiffs urged the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to declare the agency’s failure to issue hazardous substance spill regulations as unlawful,...

EPA Withdraws Slaughterhouse ELG Plan, Driving Likely Legal Challenges

EPA has formally withdrawn a Biden-era plan establishing tough effluent limits to curb nutrient and other releases from meat and poultry product (MPP) facilities, a move that is likely to draw challenges from environmentalists who sought to strengthen the proposal, though industry is applauding the withdrawal given fears of facility closures. In a notice slated for publication in the Sept. 3 Federal Register , EPA formally withdraws the Biden administration’s proposed Clean Water Act (CWA) effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs) for...

Water Systems Urge Trump EPA To Revise PFAS Biosolids Risk Assessment

Water systems and biosolids advocates are urging the Trump EPA to revise the modeling, including risk scenarios and human exposure assumptions, underlying the Biden-EPA’s draft risk assessment of two legacy PFAS in biosolids, charging it improperly calculated risks and overstated the harm the chemicals cause. “Overall, projected risks from individual pathways are overestimated as the risk assessment focuses on ‘worst-case scenarios,’” the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), which represents publicly owned wastewater and stormwater agencies, says in an...

EPA sends WOTUS proposal to OMB for interagency review

EPA has sent a proposed rule to revise the definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) that are subject to Clean Water Act (CWA) requirements to the White House for interagency review, with officials pledging to finalize the measure by the end of the year. The rule aims to align with the Supreme Court’s Sackett v. EPA decision that narrowed the scope of the CWA, particularly for wetlands. The agency’s draft proposed rule revising the definition of WOTUS...

Engineers Warn Of Costly, Complex Surface Water Treatment For PFAS

Environmental engineers are advising utilities to prepare for their treatment technology needs to tackle PFAS in surface water, emphasizing how the medium is often more difficult and expensive to treat, at a time when utilities are already struggling under the regulatory uncertainty from the proposed changes to the PFAS drinking water limits. “PFAS treatment for surface water is still [] relatively uncharted territory, mostly because much of our industry’s experience in PFAS removal has been from groundwater sources,” Jihyon Im,...

EPA Removes Biden-Era Scientific Integrity Policy From Website

Sparking criticism from some environmentalists, EPA has removed from its website its Biden-era scientific integrity policy, which seeks to protect science from manipulation and political interference, though the agency has left in place its Obama-era integrity policy. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), as of Aug. 22, EPA’s website dropped the updated Biden-era version of the agency’s scientific integrity policy. UCS says the 2025 policy , which was among the very last items the former administration released ahead...

9th Circuit Grapples With Retroactive Application Of Sackett In Citizen Suit

An appellate panel is grappling with whether a district court properly rejected a defendant’s bid to dismiss a Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen suit post-verdict for lack of subject matter jurisdiction as a result of the Supreme Court’s Sackett v. EPA decision, appearing to test defendants’ ability to apply the high court’s precedent retroactively. A panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit heard Aug. 11 arguments in the suit Inland Empire Waterkeeper, et al., v....

EPA To Weigh 1,4-DX Limits In North Carolina CWA Permitting Battle

Environmentalists are concerned that the Trump EPA will drop its Biden-era support for North Carolina’s attempts to regulate discharges of the likely carcinogen 1,4-dioxane (1,4-DX) under the Clean Water Act (CWA), in a case that tests whether the new administration will require states to clamp down on the discharges in the absence of federal criteria. “Based on this administration’s actions thus far, we are concerned, but we do hope that EPA recognizes how important it is to protect North Carolina...

Judge Stays CWA PFAS Citizen Suit Amid Plaintiff Fears Of EPA Intervention

A federal judge has granted chemical manufacturer Chemours’ request to stay a Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen suit seeking to enforce discharge limits at its West Virginia plant while the company appeals a landmark preliminary injunction requiring the facility to immediately comply with its permit and limit its releases. While the Aug. 22 order maintains the preliminary injunction, which Chemours did not seek to stay, it is nonetheless a blow to the plaintiffs -- West Virginia Rivers Coalition (WVRC) and...

Environmentalists Resist EPA Plan To Refocus CHPAC On MAHA Goals

Environmentalists are opposing the Trump EPA’s plan to task the agency’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC) with focusing on actions to implement the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) strategy elements ahead of the committee’s meeting next week CHPAC, “historically an independent body providing science-based recommendations, would now be forced to ‘align’ its guidance with MAHA’s political agenda,” Earthjustice says in an Aug. 20 blog post . “This change risks turning a scientific advisory body into a rubber...

Pages

Not a subscriber? Request 30 days free access to exclusive environmental policy reporting.