EPA released its “Year in Review” for 2018 on January 28. Within the document, the agency outlines numerous accomplishments from across the agency’s offices, encompassing work from increasing funding for water infrastructure and preventing lead exposure to deregulatory actions and responding to natural disasters.
The agency’s news release notes that the “Trump Administration has continued to deliver on its promise to provide greater regulatory certainty while protecting public health and the environment.” EPA highlights several of these accomplishments, including the agency’s work finalizing 13 deregulatory actions—bringing the administrations’ total to 33 major deregulatory actions and “saving Americans almost $2 billion.”
Another top accomplishment highlighted is the agency’s work to close seven WIFIA loans “totaling nearly $2 billion to help finance over $4 billion for water infrastructure projects and create up to 6,000 jobs.” According to the document, the WIFIA program “prioritized projects that reduce exposure to lead and other contaminants in drinking water systems and update the nation’s aging infrastructure” and “invited several entities to apply for WIFIA loans that would invest more than $300 million in lead-related projects.”
In Acting Administrator Wheeler’s introductory comments, he asserts that the agency has been “particularly focused on providing greater certainty to the American public: certainty in our EPA programs; certainty to the states, tribes, and local governments; and certainty on how we communicate risk.”
The document’s section on water focuses on the agency’s work proposing a new definition for Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS), addressing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and funding for drinking water through both the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) program and the state revolving funds.
Regarding PFAS, EPA lists numerous steps taken including hosting the National Leadership Summit, conducting multiple community engagements, releasing draft toxicity assessments for both GenX and perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS), and updating the methods for testing for PFAS in drinking water. The agency released its PFAS Action Plan February 14, shortly after releasing this report.
EPA emphasizes multiple other accomplishments for addressing lead, including the unveiling of the Federal Lead Action Plan (Lead Action Plan) in December, the release of a document, “Protecting Children from Lead Exposure,” in commemoration of National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, and the continued work to update to the Lead and Copper Rule after holding a federalism consultation in January.
Chemical safety was also discussed and the document promotes EPA’s work under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), including EPA’s strategy for identifying what chemicals should be including in upcoming risk evaluations under TSCA, which was released in September of last year.