Government Affairs Committee Update June 2024

Federal

  • EPA has proposed a draft analytical method for measuring 6PPD-quinone in stormwater and surface waters. Many of you may be following the increasing regulatory attention to 6PPDq – a chemical additive in rubber tires to help extend a tire's life and use. These chemicals have been in use for more than 50 years and have been found to be very toxic to salmon and trout species as well as other aquatic life.
  • EPA released a revised draft MS4 NPDES stormwater permit for Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington for public comment.  The 2024 draft permit proposes6PPD-q monitoring requirements using draft method 1634 related to both wet weather discharges and surface water.  The comment period is open until June 27, 2024.
  • On May 28, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court granted cert in San Francisco v. EPA.  The case calls for the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve a critical question—whether the Clean Water Act allows EPA (and authorized states) to imposed generic prohibitions against violating water quality standards in National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits. 

 

PFAS

  • In case you missed it! EPA has taken the following actions on PFAS in the last three months:
    • EPA also finalized its proposed rule establishing National Primary Drinking Water Regulation (NPDWR) for certain PFAS compounds. The final rule sets Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCL) in drinking water for five PFAS compounds and a Hazard Index MCL for a mixture of four PFAS.  Read more here.
    • EPA is proposing to modify the definition of hazardous waste as it applies to cleanups at permitted hazardous waste facilities. This modification would assure that EPA’s regulations clearly reflect EPA’s and authorized states’ authority to require cleanup of the full range of substances that the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) intended, including emerging chemicals of concern, such as PFAS, that may present substantial hazards, at permitted facilities. Currently, the regulations do not clearly and accurately reflect the full authorities granted to EPA by Congress. EPA is also proposing to amend its RCRA regulations to add multiple PFAS compounds as hazardous constituents. These PFAS would be added to the list of substances identified for consideration in facility assessments and, where necessary, further investigation and cleanup through the corrective action process at hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facilities.
    • In January 2024, EPA published two final analytical methods for PFAS: Method 1633 and Method 1621, fulfilling a commitment in its October 2021 PFAS Strategic Roadmap. These analytical methods will be used by laboratories to test samples for PFAS in a consistent and reliable way. These methods are a significant step forward in efforts to identify what PFAS are present in environmental samples, and at what levels, enabling EPA, states and Tribes, wastewater facilities, and other entities to monitor a range of different effluents and media for PFAS, including under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Program. Both methods and their multi-laboratory validation study reports are available on the Agency’s Clean Water Act Laboratory Methods website
    • In January 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the automatic addition of seven per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to the list of chemicals covered by the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). These seven PFAS were added to the TRI list pursuant to the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which provides the framework for the automatic addition of PFAS to TRI each year in response to specified EPA activities involving such PFAS. For TRI Reporting Year 2024 (reporting forms due by July 1, 2025), reporting is required for these seven additional PFAS, bringing the total PFAS subject to TRI reporting to 196. Read More.

 

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