EPA Sets Schedules for Long List of Power Plant Regulatory Actions
Credit to Author: Sonal Patel| Date: Thu, 23 May 2019 12:40:50 +0000
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will act on a spate of power plant rules over the next year, its newly released agenda of regulatory and deregulatory actions shows.
The May 23-released “Spring 2019 Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions” lists 35 new actions, along with 57 actions that it considers “deregulatory.” The list includes new rules governing coal ash, new insights and timelines for effluent limitations, monitoring and record-keeping clarifications for the mercury rule and other rules, and an amendment to a rule governing stationary combustion turbines at power plants.
The agenda shows “continued progress in reducing regulatory burden” envisioned by President Trump’s proposed regulatory reforms, the agency said in a statement. The actions will be overseen by newly confirmed EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler, who has held the role in an acting capacity since July 5, after Scott Pruitt, the Trump administration’s first EPA head, resigned amid scrutiny for questionable ethical decisions involving his office. During his confirmation hearings, Wheeler said if he were confirmed as EPA administrator, he would continue to work to advance President Trump’s regulatory reform agenda. “In 2018, EPA finalized 13 major deregulatory actions, saving Americans roughly $1.8 billion in regulatory costs. To date, under President Trump, EPA has finalized 33 major deregulatory actions saving Americans almost $2 billion,” he noted.
The agenda provides estimated schedules for a number of power plant rules.
Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELG) and Standards for the Steam Electric Power Generating Point Source Category. The EPA could revise the 2015 Best Available Technology (BAT) effluent limitations and pretreatment standards for bottom ash transport water and flue gas desulfurization wastewater at existing sources. The EPA will issue a notice of the proposed rule-making (NPRM) in June 2019, and a final rule by August 2020. The agency deems the rule “economically significant.” A federal court ruling that vacated key portions of the 2015 rule added a dramatic new element of uncertainty in timing of the rule, which the Trump administration had previously said it expected to finalize by December 2019. The power sector has been preparing to comply with the 2015 ELG rule, which sought to amend an ELG rule last updated in 1982 by setting the first federal limits on levels of toxic metals in wastewater that can be discharged from existing coal, gas, oil, and nuclear plants.
Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) for Power Plants Technical Corrections, Electronic Reporting Revisions, and Clarifications. The action proposes to revise the 2012 rule to clarify and provide flexibility to some monitoring, recordkeeping, and reporting provisions in the final rule. A proposed rule is expected in November 2019.
Definition of “Waters of the United States”—Recodification of Preexisting Rule. The Trump administration in February 2017 moved to rescind or replace the Obama administration’s 2015 definition of “waters of the U.S.” In December 2018, the EPA proposed a new definition that could exempt groundwater and ditches from regulation under the Clean Water Act (CWA). The EPA’s agenda suggests a final rule recodifiying the existing rule will come in August 2019. It will also formally issue a revised definition in December 2019.
Hazardous and Solid Waste Management System: Disposal of Coal Combustion Residues From Electric Utilities: Amendments to the National Minimum Criteria (Phase 2). Since a final rule governing disposal of coal combustion residuals (CCR) from power plants was signed in April 2015, the EPA has grappled with legal challenges. In July 2016, the EPA extended compliance deadlines. In the Trump era, responding to utility petitions that urged the EPA to reconsider parts of the rule, the agency in July 2018 signed the first of two rules to overhaul the final 2015 rule and better align it to potential revisions to the ELGs.
The rule weakened requirements for managing coal ash storage areas, allows states to suspend groundwater monitoring if no leaks are detected, and it delays pond closure deadlines until October 2020—about 18 more months compared to the 2015 rule. As part of the second phase, the EPA will propose additional “targeted” changes to the 2015 CCR rule, including actions remanded back to the agency by the D.C. Circuit in August 2018. The court struck down the provisions of the 2015 rule that that allowed unlined and clay-lined impoundments to receive coal ash and exempted inactive impoundments, finding that EPA’s approach “does not address the identified health and environmental harms documented in the record.” The EPA sent Phase 2 to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review on May 7. The proposal should be issued in July 2019, the agenda says. A final rule will come in December 2019.
Hazardous and Solid Waste Management System: Disposal of Coal Combustion Residuals from Electric Utilities; Revision of Cease Receipt of Waste Deadline for CCR Surface Impoundments; Response to Court. Making its appearance in the agenda for the first time, this rule seeks to address issues stemming from the D.C. Circuit’s August 2018 court decision in Utility Solid Waste Activities Group, et al v. EPA, which came a month after the EPA’s finalization of the Phase 1 CCR rule. Environmental groups challenged the Phase 1 rule, and in March 2019, the D.C. District Court allowed the EPA to voluntarily remand the rule without vacated. Among issues the rule addresses is when owners and operators of CCR surface impoundments should cease the receipt of CCR and initiate closure. The new rule extends the cease receipt deadline from October 2018 to October 2020. Abiding by a court deadline that forces the agency to finalize a new rule by December 2019, the EPA expects to propose a rule by July 2019, with final action in December.
Federal Coal Combustion Residuals Permitting Program. After Congress passed the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act in 2016—effectively giving the EPA new CCR enforcement authority under amendments to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)—the EPA has designed a new CCR regulatory structure under which states may seek approval from the agency to operate a permitting program that would regulate CCR facilities within their state. This rule will establish the permitting program. “The potentially regulated universe is limited to facilities with CCR disposal units subject to regulation under 40 CFR part 257 subpart D, which are located on tribal lands and in nonparticipating states. The remaining CCR facilities would be regulated by the approved state program and would not be subject to federal permitting requirements,” the EPA says. A proposed rule is expected in July 2019, and a final rule could come in May 2020. This is a new rule on the unified agenda.
Hazardous and Solid Waste Management System; Disposal of CCR; Alternative Demonstration for Unlined Surface Impoundments / Request for Comment on Legacy Units; Response to Court Part B. Responding to the August 2018 D.C. Circuit decision, this rule—also making a first appearance in the agenda—would address a provision in that court decision and provide a mechanism where unlined surface impoundments meeting strict criteria would be allowed to continue to operate. This rule will also address a necessary modification to the timeline of closure by removal, and it requests comments on inactive units at inactive facilities also known as “legacy units.” A proposed rule is expected in July 2019, with a final rule in December 2019.
Financial Responsibility Requirements Under CERCLA Section 108(b) for the Electric Power Generation, Transmission, and Distribution Industry. Section 108(b) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, as amended, establishes certain authorities concerning financial responsibility requirements. The EPA in January 2010 identified classes of facilities, including those in the power generation, transmission, and distribution sector, as those for which could develop, as necessary, financial responsibility requirements under CERCLA 108(b) to cover costs associated with releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances from their facilities. In January 2017, the EPA made a determination to proceed with these rulemakings. A proposed rule for the power sector will come in July 2019, and a final rule in December 2020.
Review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for Particulate Matter. As required by the Clean Air Act, the EPA must set NAAQS for particulate matter (PM) and five other pollutants and periodically review the standards. In January 2013, the EPA published a final rule tightening the NAAQS for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) to 12.0 micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m3) but declared it would not finalize a proposal to update separate secondary PM2.5 standards. The EPA has since been preparing an integrated review plan and other documents, which it says will inform a “decision” as to whether it will retain or revise the standards. A proposed rule is expected in March 2020.
General Revisions to Emissions Monitoring and Reporting Requirements for Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units. This proposed rule would revise the definitions, monitoring, record-keeping, and reporting requirements associated with the allowance trading programs—the Acid Rain and Cross State Air Pollution Rule, for example. The proposed rule would also update or remove other provisions of the Acid Rain Program that applied only in earlier phases of the program. A proposed rule will be issued in November 2019, with a final rule in April 2020.
National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP): Stationary Combustion Turbine Residual Risk and Technology Review. The Stationary Combustion Turbine NESHAP, subpart YYYY, which the EPA promulgated in March 2004, establishes emission standards for hazardous air pollutants at stationary combustion turbines at power plants and other facilities, and for years, industry has been working to get the EPA to delist natural gas subcategories based on low risk. This April, the EPA proposed to amend the rule, including to revise requirements for periods of startup, shutdown, and malfunction to be consistent with recent court decisions. The proposed rule also seeks to remove a stay for new gas-fired combustion turbines. The comment period will end in May 2019 and the final rule could come in January 2020.
—Sonal Patel is a POWER associate editor (@sonalcpatel, @POWERmagazine)
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