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.

States Wrestle With Uncertainty As Trump EPA Reworks SDWA PFAS Rule

The Trump EPA’s efforts to rescind and alter aspects of the Biden-era PFAS drinking water rule is leaving states in a tough spot, disrupting their efforts to implement the rule’s looming monitoring deadlines as well as some states’ efforts to seek primacy to implement the regulation. The “top line to me gets down to regulatory uncertainty,” one state source says. At issue are the Trump EPA’s plans to pare back aspects of the 2024 Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) rule...

Touting New York Pipeline Plan, Zeldin Renews Pledge To Limit CWA 401

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is pressing New York and other New England states to approve construction of the long-scuttled Constitution gas pipeline to help reduce energy costs, suggesting that the agency’s pending plan to limit the scope of states’ water quality reviews will prevent New York from blocking any new effort to build the pipeline. Zeldin authored an Aug. 5 op-ed in The Boston Globe , where he raises concerns about energy supply options and increased energy costs in...

Upcoming EPA Filing Could Preview Plans To Roll Back Power Plant ELGs

EPA’s upcoming deadline to file a status report in litigation challenging the Biden-era rule governing effluent limitation guidelines (ELGs) for power plants could preview how the agency is planning to revise the rule ahead of a self-imposed summer deadline to propose a rule extending compliance deadlines for the rule’s zero-discharge mandates. EPA is currently facing an Aug. 11 deadline to file a status report in the suits Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEP Co.), et al., v. EPA, et al. ,...

Senate votes to confirm Army Corps’ nominee

The Senate has voted to confirm President Donald Trump’s nomination of Adam Telle to lead the Army Corps of Engineers, where he will spearhead the administration’s efforts towards streamlining dredge-and-fill permitting and fast-tracking the Corps’ permitting processes while also overseeing the Corps’ water infrastructure and other projects. The Senate on Aug. 2 voted 72-22 to confirm Telle to serve as assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works, with 19 Democrats joining with 53 Republicans in support of the nominee...

EPA Seeks To Resume LCRI Suit, Signaling Decision On Replacement Rule

EPA is seeking to resume litigation challenging the Biden-era Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI), which requires near-total replacement of lead service lines by 2037, signaling the agency has decided whether it will defend the rule or ask the court to send it back to EPA for reconsideration. In an Aug. 4 motion , EPA asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to end a months-long pause on the case, which had been granted to allow Trump...

Environmentalists Defend Biden’s CWA 401 Rule As EPA Weighs Changes

Environmentalists are urging Trump EPA officials to retain the Biden-era rule governing Clean Water Act (CWA) section 401 water quality certifications, defending the lawfulness of its provisions allowing states to broadly review the “project activity” as opposed to the narrower “water quality impacts” that industry and some states favor. “The 2023 rule that replaced the 2020 rule was consistent with the statute and with the Supreme Court’s interpretation of it,” Nancy Stoner, a former EPA water office chief in the...

EPA Signals It May Revisit Science Behind PFAS Biosolids Risk Assessment

The Trump EPA is signaling it may revisit the science underlying the Biden-era draft risk assessment of two legacy PFAS in biosolids, according to slides presented during recent listening sessions the agency held with states, the wastewater sector and other stakeholders, in a first sign of whether or how it will pursue sludge disposal rules. “The EPA is seeking feedback from potentially impacted stakeholders -- states, the wastewater sector, and the agricultural sector -- to better understand stakeholder views and...

EPA Slides

Summary Of EPA Listening Sessions

Notes From June 12 Call


Experts Doubt Speedy Benefits From Trump Order Easing Permitting For AI

Lawyers and permitting experts are doubtful that Trump administration efforts to ease environmental permitting for data centers and other artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure will yield quick results, as regulators work to craft rules to implement the policies while project developers will likely resist testing them early due to legal risks. “If federal agencies successfully implement these streamlining efforts, businesses developing data centers or associated energy sources may be subject to reduced regulatory requirements and may be able to take advantage...

EPA Advisers Criticize Agency Plans To Revise Biden-Era PFAS SDWA Rule

Several members of an EPA drinking water advisory committee are voicing concerns and opposition to agency plans to revise and delay aspects of the landmark Biden-era PFAS drinking water rules, with the panelists warning the plans would undermine public trust, undercut state efforts to regulate and face legal hurdles. “I think what we’d see with this action is reduced public trust if the MCLs are rescinded,” Steve Elmore, director of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ Drinking Water and Groundwater...

Facing Tight Deadline, Industry Urges Corps To Ease NWPs In Second Rule

Energy, construction, mining and other industry groups are urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to craft a second rule, alongside its five-year overhaul of dozens of Clean Water Act (CWA) dredge-and-fill general permits, that would ease those permits, given the agency’s tight timeframe to reissue the permitting package before it lapses in 2026. An industry coalition filed July 18 comments on the Corps’ proposal to reissue and modify its nationwide permits (NWPs), emphasizing its strong support for the reauthorization...

Industry Seeks Dedicated NWP For Data Centers Amid Trump’s AI Agenda

Industry is urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to modify its draft five-year overhaul of dozens of Clean Water Act (CWA) dredge-and-fill general permits by adding a dedicated permit for data center construction and expansion needed for artificial intelligence (AI), as the Trump administration is seeking streamlined permitting for such projects. The Data Center Coalition (DCC), in July 18 comments on the Corps’ proposed reissuance and modification of its nationwide permit (NWP) package, is broadly urging the Corps to...

Georgia PFAS Case Tests Prioritization Of Competing CERCLA, CWA Claims

A public utility in Georgia is fighting with environmentalists over whether the Superfund law or the Clean Water Act (CWA) should govern the cleanup of land and waterways contaminated with PFAS-laden wastewater, as they contest the issue in separate claims pending in federal court. The dispute could be an early test of whether Superfund cost recovery claims for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) cleanups -- now allowed under EPA’s 2024 Superfund rule designating two heavily studied PFAS as “hazardous substances”...

Senate’s FY26 Bill Boosts EPA’s SRF Spending But Earmarks 21 Percent

Senate appropriators are seeking to boost spending on EPA’s state revolving loan funds (SRFs) for water infrastructure to $2.8 billion in fiscal year 2026, a significant increase from what the administration requested, though the bill earmarks almost $600 million of that for local projects, a move that is likely to renew criticism of the practice. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved its interior and environment appropriations bill in a 26-2 vote July 24 . Overall, the bill funds EPA at $8.6...

Senate Appropriators Double EPA’s Budget Request, Setting Showdown

Senate appropriators have approved EPA’s fiscal year 2026 budget at $8.6 billion, more than double the $4.16 billion the agency requested and more than the $7 billion House Republicans are planning to provide, with the increased spending aimed at boosting funding for water infrastructure, agency personnel and other measures. But the funding increase could spark a showdown as policymakers scramble to approve the spending before the end of the fiscal year at the end of September. The Senate Appropriations Committee...

Utilities Urge EPA Advisors To Back Revised PFAS Drinking Water Rule

Water utilities are urging EPA advisors to support revisions Administrator Lee Zeldin announced in May to partially pare back the agency’s drinking water rule setting limits for certain PFAS, though the utilities plan to maintain their legal challenge contesting the portion of the Biden-era rule the Trump administration says it will retain. The American Water Works Association (AWWA), which represents a variety of drinking water utilities, submitted July 21 comments to the National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC) ahead of...

Trump Orders EPA To Ease Permitting To Speed AI Data Center Approvals

President Donald Trump’s executive order (EO) to speed the approval and permitting for a broad range of data centers and energy facilities needed for artificial intelligence (AI) is directing EPA to ease clean air and water requirements for “qualifying projects,” as part of the administration’s broader strategy for winning a global “race” to develop AI. The July 23 EO , issued with two other orders for promoting AI development, directs EPA to expedite “permitting on Federal and non-Federal lands by...

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