The Tide

Short alerts designed to keep legal and water sector professionals up-to-date on important developments

On March 25, EPA sent a proposed Clean Water Act Section 401 Water Quality Certification rule to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for interagency review. Once cleared by OMB, the proposal will be published in the Federal Register for public review and comment. According to the OMB dashboard, EPA considers this proposed…

EPA’s budget, approved by Congress last week, increases investment in the agency’s Safe Drinking Water Act Underground Injection Control (UIC) program. A joint statement accompanying the budget specifies that $5 million is available for EPA to develop expertise and capacity in the UIC Class VI well program, and these dollars should be used to process…

EPA’s Office of Water recently issued guidance on the Implementation of the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund Provisions of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The memorandum itself is eight pages long and covers a range of issues, including reiterating the inherent flexibility in state revolving fund programs, which allows states to prioritize the use of federal funds based on local water needs. The guidance also encourages agencies to prioritize increasing investment in disadvantaged communities, while using the funding to address emerging contaminants, replace lead lines, and improve the climate resilience of water infrastructure. Additionally, the guidance promotes investment in America’s water workforce — a frequently overlooked priority initiated in the prior administration that is designed to shore up an essential but aging water sector workforce.
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Continue reading EPA Issues Guidance for Use of Infrastructure Dollars

EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program released a draft toxicological review of perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA) today, signaling another step in the agency’s ongoing research and regulatory initiatives focused on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). This particular PFAS will be interesting to monitor because it is a breakdown product of other PFAS that may enter…

On Monday, January 24, in Michael Sackett et al. v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency et al., (Case No. 21-454), the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari to determine if the Ninth Circuit used the right test to determine whether wetlands are subject to federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act. Idaho landowners, the Sacketts, disputed the…

On December 27, 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published the final Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR). The Fifth UCMR will collect nationwide data on the occurrence of lithium and 29 per- and poly fluoroalkyl substances in public drinking water systems.  Data will be collected between 2023 and 2025 and reported in 2026.

On December 16, 2021, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a final rule amending its regulations governing the dam safety of FERC-licensed hydropower projects under the Federal Power Act.  Among other things, the final rule implements two tiers of project safety inspections and codifies FERC’s existing dam safety guidance.  The rule will become effective…

EPA announced today that it will move forward with the significant public health improvements codified in the Lead and Copper Rule Revisions (LCRR) rulemaking. Implementation of the LCRR, published in the Federal Register on January 15, 2021, had been delayed by the Biden administration, while it worked with Congress to secure additional funding for lead…

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