EPA Office of Water has instituted a new policy for draft guidance documents issued by the agency. According to the August 6 memo, Office of Water Policy for Draft Documents, the Office of Water identified more than 2500 interim policy documents and approximately 70 draft documents that have never been finalized or formally withdrawn. The agency highlighted concerns that, by not finalizing these documents, the Office of Water could be confusing regulators, the regulated community, and the general public.
According to the memo, this confusion is especially concerning when these documents “are interpreted as mandating certain actions or outcomes.” EPA goes on to clarify that “no agency guidance or policy documents, whether issued in draft, interim, or final, have the force or effect of law.” To alleviate these concerns, the new policy mandates that effective immediately, all draft documents that were issued more than two years ago and have not been finalized be rescinded. The policy also instructs that any future draft documents released will have two years to be finalized or will automatically be rescinded.
The memo states that the Office of Water “does not expect today’s policy to affect documents that are critical to national program implementation because they were never finalized.” and that “it is reasonable to conclude that any draft policy and guidance documents would have been finalized if they were necessary to enhance effective program implementation.” The agency plans to establish a website database to house all the documents that are currently effective.