Federal Rule and Funding Update
In January 2021 a new EPA administration began. As is common practice, the new administration placed all the latest activities from the prior administration on hold. This has significant implications for drinking water. In this article, we will briefly explore a couple of these actions and discuss funding as well.
Actions Placed on Hold
Before the change in Administrations, EPA published the final Lead and Copper Rule Revisions (LCRR) in the Federal Register. This means that the rule becomes effective March 15, 2021 and states have until January 2023 to adopt the rule with a compliance date of January 2024. However this action was placed on hold, so now we are all in a bit of limbo. EPA has at least a few options to consider.
After review, EPA can let the rule stand as is. If the review takes a long time, we hope that they allow states a concomitant amount of extra time to adopt the rule and similarly extend the compliance deadline.
EPA can withdraw the rule and publish a revised final rule without additional public comment if it believes that the changes are within the scope of the prior public notice opportunity. For example, EPA might believe that raising the required minimum Lead Service Line Replacement (LSLR) rate higher than 3.0 percent would not require a new public notice period and move that forward as a part of the final rule with other similar changes. This would likely change the adoption and compliance dates in accordance with a new final rule publication date in the Federal Register.
EPA can withdraw the rule and determine that it wishes to make changes substantial enough to be outside of the scope of the prior public notice opportunity. In this case, EPA would need to promulgate a new draft rule and take public notice on that draft prior to finalizing LCRR. Obviously, this could cause a significant delay.
At present we have no way to know which direction EPA will go or how long the review will take. We are certainly hoping to hear something from them in March 2021.
After reviewing the previous administration’s final actions to regulate PFOA and PFOS and include 29 PFAS contaminants plus Lithium in the fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR5), EPA decided to move forward with these at the present time. However, EPA will be holding public meetings and taking comments on UCMR5, so the contaminants that will be tested could change. EPA is required to promulgate a draft for PFOA and PFOS within two years.
Additionally, EPA indicates that they will revisit their prior decision not to regulate perchlorate in drinking water. If EPA changes that decision, then it might need to accept public comment on that decision, but would definitely need to accept public comments on a draft rule before finalizing it with a Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL).
Funding
With the new congress and new administration it is likely that EPA’s funding and the funding provided to states to implement the Safe Drinking Water Act will increase, but this may not happen until at least 2022. This could help shrink current resource gaps that states experience, but the new funding needed to support LCRR implementation is substantial. It is also possible that funding for infrastructure could increase significantly as that was being discussed prior to the pandemic. There could also be additional funding dedicated to removing lead service lines across the nation. Again, if any of these funding initiatives move forward, the dollars might not actually flow until 2022.
