The federal government released its Fall 2019 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions November 20. Listed below are actions which have had their timelines modified. All actions are through the EPA unless otherwise noted.
Delayed Timelines:
Revised Lead and Copper Rule
Final Rule: TBD
Revised Definition of “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS)
Final Rule: January 2020
Update to the Regulations for Implementing the Procedural Provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act (Council on Environmental Quality)
Proposed Rule: November 2019
Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Revision of the Regulations for Designating Critical Habitat (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
Proposed Rule: May 2020
Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Steam Electric Power Generating Point Source Category
Proposed Rule: released November 21, 2019
Final Rule: TBD
Addition of Certain Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) to the Toxics Release Inventory
Advanced Notice: November 2019
Proposed Rule: June 2020
Policy for Domestic, Municipal, and Industrial Water Supply Uses of Reservoir Projects Operated by the Department of the Army (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)
Final Rule: September 2020
The final rule for Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science is no longer scheduled for December of this year. Instead, EPA announced the agency would be releasing a supplemental Federal Register notice (FRN), which is currently at the Office of Management and Budget. The unified agenda states the FRN will be released in January 2020 but gives no timeline for a final rule. EPA’s regulatory determination for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) is still on schedule to be announced December of this year.
EPA has also added a new rulemaking to the agenda, Water System Restructuring Rule, mandated under the America's Water Infrastructure Act (AWIA). AWIA mandates EPA to promulgate a regulation that authorizes primacy agencies to require an “assessment of restructuring options for a public water system that frequently violates health-based standards and is unwilling or unable to take feasible corrective actions to return to compliance or that has unsuccessfully attempted feasible and affordable actions to return to compliance.”
All these actions are regularly updated on AMWA’s Regulatory Update At-A-Glance page. If you have any questions related to these updates please email Stephanie Hayes Schlea at [email protected].