On the heels of the President’s Executive Order on Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change, announced on November 1, EPA released draft Climate Change Adaptation Implementation Plans for each program office and each regional office. By releasing the plans, EPA recognizes it must “integrate climate change adaptation planning into its programs, policies, rules and operations” to ensure the agency continues to perform its mission of protecting public health and the environment.
The Office of Water (OW) plan is by and large the implementation plan for its previously released 2012 climate change strategy. However, three notable new activities OW will pursue are:
- with EPA regional offices, develop screening criteria to identify water and wastewater facilities on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts that may be at risk of inundation by storm surge;
- with the Office of Enforcement and Compliance, pursue a pilot project to include climate change considerations in compliance and enforcement activities; and
- with the U.S. Department of Energy, accelerate progress in understanding and developing innovative technologies and processes that lead to improved management of both water resources and energy production.
EPA is accepting comments on its draft implementation plans through January 3.