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 Extends Certain TCE Compliance Deadlines Days Ahead Of Bans

EPA is extending certain compliance deadlines in the Biden-era TSCA rule phasing out many uses of trichloroethylene (TCE) that it says critical industry sectors will be unable to meet, just days before the first of those deadlines for wastewater discharges and nuclear fuel manufacturing were set to take effect. EPA released Sept. 12 a pre-publication copy of a Federal Register notice describing the interim final rule, which extends the compliance deadline for the 2024 TCE risk management rule’s ban...

Trump EPA Asks D.C. Circuit To Vacate Four PFAS Drinking Water Limits

The Trump EPA is urging the D.C. Circuit to vacate four of six Biden-era drinking water standards for PFAS, arguing the agency did not follow mandatory procedural requirements when it promulgated them, in an effort to quickly resolve legal questions over whether officials can follow through on their plan to withdraw the landmark limits. The Biden “EPA initially attempted to defend the Rule against forceful legal challenges raised in these petitions for review,” the Trump EPA says in a Sept...

Motion For Partial Vacatur

Court Order


EPA Allows Arizona To Take Over CO2 Storage, Other Injection Well Permits

EPA is finalizing its approval for Arizona to directly issue Underground Injection Control (UIC) permits for all types of wells, including Class VI wells needed for carbon capture and storage (CCS) that have been a key policy focus in recent years for backers of the climate change mitigation technology. While the Grand Canyon State does not currently have any pending permits immediately affected by the move, state officials and others say the move paves the way for future CCS development...

California Passes Bill For PFAS Mitigation Fund To Reduce Treatment Costs

California lawmakers have passed a bill that would, if funded in future fiscal year budgets, create a PFAS mitigation fund allowing state water regulators to cover or reduce costs associated with treating PFAS in drinking water, recycled water, stormwater, and wastewater. The bill, SB 454 by Sen. Jerry McNerney (D-Stockton), this week unanimously passed the state Senate and Assembly and awaits action by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). Oct. 12 is the deadline for the governor to sign or veto bills...

SB 454

Analysis


Split Over SDWA PFAS Case, EPA, Parties Again Ask Court For More Time

The Trump EPA and other parties are split over how to proceed in litigation over the Biden-era PFAS drinking water limits and are again asking the D.C. Circuit for more time, until Sept. 12, to confer on a joint proposal for a briefing schedule to continue litigation. “The parties are conferring in good faith on a briefing schedule, but have not yet reached consensus,” the parties said in an unopposed joint motion to govern filed late Sept. 10. “To afford...

POTWs Renew Calls For Withdrawal Of Biden-Era Delaware River Plan

Local and national wastewater groups are renewing calls for EPA to reconsider a Biden-era plan to set water quality standards (WQS) to protect aquatic life in the Delaware River, and withdraw a proposed consent decree that would require the rule’s finalization, charging the policy conflicts with Trump administration priorities. The Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) and Delaware County Regional Water Quality Control Authority (DELCORA) separately met with EPA and White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) officials last month regarding...

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...

Environmentalists Warn Slaughterhouse ELG Withdrawal May Be Unlawful

Environmentalists are raising significant legal concerns over EPA’s withdrawal of a proposed Biden-era rule establishing tough effluent limits to curb nutrient and other releases from meat and poultry product (MPP) facilities, signaling they will almost certainly sue over the action. EPA formally withdrew the Biden administration’s proposed Clean Water Act (CWA) effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs) for slaughterhouse and rendering facilities in a Sept. 3 Federal Register notice, saying it decided not to finalize the standards “based on exercise of...

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 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...

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