EPA and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) reached an agreement to extend EPA’s deadline to finalize a rule for regulating perchlorate. The original deadline, December 19 of this year, was mandated by a 2016 consent decree after NRDC sued EPA over the agency’s missed statutory deadline for the proposal of a perchlorate drinking water standard. EPA made a positive regulatory determination for perchlorate in February 2011, which triggered the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) statutory requirement for EPA to propose a maximum contaminant level (MCL) for perchlorate within two years.
After numerous delays and deadline extensions, EPA published the proposed rule in the Federal Register May 23 of this year. The proposal sets both an MCL and a Maximum Contaminant Level Goal (MCLG) of 56 parts per billion (ppb), but also sought public input on three alternative regulatory options:
- An MCL and MCLG set at 18 ppb.
- An MCL and MCLG set at 90 ppb.
- Withdrawal of the agency’s 2011 determination to regulate perchlorate in drinking water.
AMWA engaged the Regulatory Committee and after much discussion decided to support EPA’s alternative option of withdrawing the 2011 determination to regulate stating, that “based on the occurrence of perchlorate in drinking water systems at the three possible MCLs – which correspond with EPA’s chosen neurodevelopmental endpoints – AMWA agrees with EPA’s determination that this particular proposal does not present a meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction as is laid out in SDWA.”
With the agreed upon six-month extension, EPA now has until June 19, 2020 to finalize a rule.