EPA Announces Final Rule to Modernize Implementation of Clean Water Act

The EPA announced a final rule to streamline, modernize, and clarify the procedures for states, territories and authorized Tribes to administer programs that protect local waterbodies. This is the first comprehensive update to the Clean Water Act Section 404(g) Tribal and State Assumption Program regulations in 35 years.

 

“The Clean Water Act envisions collaborative implementation between EPA and state and Tribal co-regulators to protect our nation’s waters that support public health, thriving ecosystems, business development, recreation, agriculture, and more,” said EPA Principal Deputy Administrator for Water Bruno Pigott. “This final rule will make it easier for states and Tribes to administer a vitally important permitting program while complying with Clean Water Act requirements that have strengthened our water resources for 50 years.”

 

The 2024 Rule for the Clean Water Act Section 404(g) Tribal and State Assumption Program clarifies the procedures and requirements for states, territories and authorized Tribes to assume and administer the Clean Water Act Section 404 permitting program in some waters of the United States. Since the program was enacted in 1977, many Tribes and states have expressed interest in administering the program. Tribes, states and other stakeholders have identified several barriers to assumption and requested that EPA clarify the program’s requirements and procedures.

 

The 2024 Rule responds to this feedback and establishes new procedures to address these barriers. It also harmonizes the requirements for program assumption with existing requirements for program operation and creates new opportunities for Tribal engagement and public input. Further, the 2024 Rule clarifies EPA’s oversight role, which will increase transparency and help facilitate conversations between EPA and the assuming state or Tribe. Because the 2024 Rule replaces outdated and unclear procedures with more transparent requirements and more streamlined procedures, the 2024 Rule will facilitate assumption of Clean Water Act Section 404 while ensuring that approved state and Tribal programs are meeting their requirements.

 

For more information, including a pre-publication version of the Federal Register notice and fact sheets, visit the CWA 404g website.

 

Through a final rule published in the Federal Register, OSHA has amended its personal protective equipment standard for construction to explicitly state that PPE must fit workers properly. The change brings the standard into alignment with the PPE standards for general industry and shipyards, which already required properly fitting PPE.

 

The text of the rule notes that it does not represent a significant change since OSHA has always interpreted the PPE in construction standard to require properly fitting PPE. The rule is intended to clarify employers’ existing obligations, OSHA states.

 

“[I]t is clear from the record that workers in the construction industry have either struggled to obtain properly fitting PPE or are still being provided PPE that does not fit,” the text of the rule reads. “This often leaves these employees exposed to the hazards the PPE is meant to protect against and may be creating additional hazards.”

 

The rule goes into effect Jan. 13, 2025. Read the rule in the Federal Register.

 

 

Environmental Resource Center’s on-site and custom training is designed to meet the unique needs of your organization.  Get the training you need tailored to your site’s operations.  We’ll deliver the training according to your schedule, at your site or online!  Click here for more information.

 

 

The EPA finalized a rule to protect workers from exposure to carbon tetrachloride (CTC), a chemical known to be toxic to the liver and cause liver cancer, brain tumors and adrenal gland tumors. This final rule will protect people from these risks through the requirement of robust worker safety programs and banning some uses. This risk management rule aligns with President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot, a whole-of-government approach to end cancer as we know it. This is the fifth risk management rule to be finalized using the process created by the bipartisan 2016 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) amendments, marking another major milestone for chemical safety since President Biden took office after decades of inadequate protections and serious delays.

 

“President Biden has championed actions that reduce Americans’ exposure to known cancer-causing toxins, so that we can prevent more cancers before they start,” said Deputy Assistant to the President for the Cancer Moonshot Danielle Carnival. “Today’s announcement is a win for American workers. Thanks to protections like this one, many families will never have to face a cancer diagnosis.”

 

CTC is a solvent used in commercial settings as a raw material for producing other chemicals like those used in refrigerants, aerosol propellants and foam-blowing agents. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission banned the use of CTC in consumer products in 1970.

 

Requirements under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (Montreal Protocol) and the Clean Air Act phased out CTC production in the United States in 1996 for most domestic uses that did not involve manufacturing other chemicals.

 

The continued, safe use of CTC in the manufacture of low global warming potential chemicals used in refrigerants, aerosol propellants and foam-blowing agents is particularly important in the agency’s efforts to support the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020 (AIM Act) and the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol.

 

This final rule closes the door on discontinued uses of CTC that EPA found present unreasonable risk, like for metal recovery and as an additive in fuel and plastic components used in the automotive industry. For most uses that continue, the rule requires measures to ensure workers are protected. Some uses prohibited by the proposed rule will be allowed to continue under the final rule, because public comments and supporting information demonstrated both that the uses were ongoing and that the workplace protections could be implemented. Uses of CTC allowed to continue under the Workplace Chemical Protection Program (which includes inhalation exposure limits and dermal protections) include:

 

In response to public comments on the proposed rule, companies now have 36 months instead of 12 months to fully implement the Workplace Chemical Protection Program, which provides sufficient time to refine test methods to measure the new inhalation exposure limits. Laboratory use of CTC will still require prescriptive workplace controls, but those controls are now better aligned with current Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards in the final rule.

 

The final rule also requires owners and operators to attest that engineering controls selected to comply with the rule’s inhalation exposure limits do not increase emissions of CTC to ambient air outside of the facility. This, along with existing National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPs) for CTC under the Clean Air Act, helps to protect fenceline communities from increased exposure to CTC by prohibiting workplaces from simply ventilating more of the chemical outside of the workplace in order to meet their indoor inhalation exposure limits.

 

EPA announced risk management rules for two solvents that are often used as alternatives for each other: trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE). The new rules will ban all uses of TCE and many uses of PCE.

 

Most uses of TCE, including its manufacture and processing for all consumer and most commercial products, will be prohibited within one year. All other uses of TCE will be phased out over a longer period, with EPA requiring compliance with a workplace chemical protection program and controls intended to limit occupational exposure to the substance.

 

Most uses of PCE will be required to be phased out in less than three years, but the rule allows for a 10-year phaseout for PCE’s uses in dry cleaning to allow small businesses time to transition away from the chemical. Uses of PCE related to national security, aviation, and other critical infrastructure are among those that will be allowed to continue. Workplaces that continue using PCE must follow a workplace chemical protection program, which the pre-publication copy of the rule says will include “an inhalation exposure concentration limit, direct dermal contact controls, and related workplace exposure controls.”

 

TCE is used mostly in industrial and commercial applications such as vapor degreasing and the manufacture of certain refrigerants. The solvent is also used by consumers in cleaning and furniture care products, spray coatings for arts and crafts, and automotive care products like brake cleaners. PCE, also known as perc, is used in applications such as dry cleaning, aerosol degreasing, petroleum manufacturing, and fluorinated compound production. Both TCE and PCE are known to cause cancer.

 

Both risk management rules will go into effect 30 days after they are published in the Federal Register. Prepublication copies of the rules for TCE and PCE are available from EPA’s website.

 

EPA plans to release compliance guides for the TCE rule and for the use of PCE in dry cleaning and energized electrical cleaning. Those guides are anticipated to be published in the coming months. Individuals who are interested in learning more about the PCE rule can register at no cost to attend an EPA webinar that will be held on Jan. 15, 2025. The webinar will provide an overview of the PCE rule and how it will be implemented.

 

 

The EPA announced a consent agreement with Arrow Pipeline, LLC, resolving Arrow Pipeline’s Clean Air Act violations on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, North Dakota.

 

EPA observed visible smoke (particulate) emissions and hydrocarbon emissions comprised of volatile organic compounds and potentially toxic hazardous air pollutants, from multiple Arrow Pipeline natural gas compressor stations on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation during a routine inspection in June 2023. EPA also found that the company failed to meet records management requirements under its operating permits. Arrow Pipeline corrected the violations and agreed to pay a $450,000 penalty as part of the consent agreement.

 

"I’m encouraged Arrow Pipeline has taken steps to properly address its air pollution violations on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation,” said KC Becker, EPA Regional Administrator. “This successful outcome demonstrates EPA’s commitment to protecting Tribal communities that are especially vulnerable to the harmful effects of poor air quality.”

 

Arrow Pipeline owns and operates seven compressor stations on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation which include engines, tanks and flares that help move natural gas through the pipeline. These stations are subject to permit requirements enforced by EPA under the Clean Air Act. 

 

During its evaluation, EPA detected visible smoke (particulate) emissions from a flare and hydrocarbon emissions from closed vent systems controlling vapors from hydrocarbon liquid storage tanks, violating the terms of Arrow Pipeline’s Clean Air Act permits. Arrow Pipeline also failed to operate, monitor and maintain records in accordance with engine requirements in the permits.

 

Industrial sources of pollution like Arrow Pipeline are subject to requirements of Clean Air Act permitting programs that help prevent emissions of air pollutants. Learn more about these permit programs in North Dakota and how they protect human health and the environment on the EPA Region 8 website.

 

 

The EPA announced a settlement with Beckart Environmental, Inc., of Kenosha, Wisconsin, for allegedly selling and distributing unregistered pesticide products in violation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. Beckart Environmental, Inc. will pay a $546,972 penalty.

 

Beckart Environmental, Inc. allegedly sold or distributed the unregistered pesticides, Aqua Dry and Air Relief 3001, with the claim that these products kill bacteria, germs, and viruses. Under FIFRA, products that claim to kill, destroy, prevent, or repel bacteria or viruses are considered pesticides. All pesticides distributed or sold in the United States are required to be registered by the EPA to ensure that the products perform as intended, and will not harm people, non-target species, or the environment when used as directed. Pesticidal claims can only be made for products that have been registered with EPA.

 

 

East St. Louis Under Formal Complaint for Unlawful Discharges of Untreated Sewage