In response to President Obama’s January Executive Order requiring government agencies to perform a “look-back” assessment of rules, EPA released its “Final Plan for Periodic Retrospective Reviews of Existing Regulations.” The final document includes proposed reviews of several drinking water regulations previously mentioned in the draft plan, including reviews of Consumer Confidence Reports and the Lead and Copper Rule. The one major addition from the draft version of the review plan is the proposed review of the Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule (LT2) as part of EPA’s Six-Year Review process. The LT2 review is expected to start early in 2012 with several stakeholder meetings to launch the process. Now is the time to start thinking about any additional issues you would like to see addressed as part of the LT2 review process.
Clean Water Act (CWA) requirements also get considerable attention as part of the retrospective review plan. Of particular interest to utilities facing budget issues is EPA’s intent to develop a policy framework that will allow better prioritization of investments in clean water infrastructure, a welcome step toward addressing concerns over high projected high costs for upcoming CWA requirements.
Overall, the reviews and recommendations outlined in EPA’s final retrospective review plan have the potential to impart much needed flexibility and cost savings in a tough economic environment. However, follow-through on these initiatives will need to be closely monitored as EPA deals with its own budgetary constraints, but inclusion in the plan is expected to give the initiatives additional standing in EPA’s priority list over the next several years.