Environmentalists are previewing their testimony for EPA's April 24 hearing on the agency's planned revisions to its coal ash disposal rule, warning that the changes would increase risks to children's health by removing a mandate to protect sensitive subpopulations and harm communities by ending a requirement to quickly clean up ash spills.

EPA has sent for White House review a proposed rule to increase the transparency of regulatory science, advancing Administrator Scott Pruitt's controversial efforts to ban the use of "secret science" in a move that suggests officials have addressed at least some internal concerns that such a policy could violate statutory protections of medical privacy and trade secrets.

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is praising EPA's efforts to improve its influential but controversial risk analysis program, the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), and even backs supporters' efforts to keep Republicans from consolidating the program with EPA's toxics office, underscoring steps Congress took in EPA's recent budget bill.

Reverse distributors of pharmaceuticals are making a final push for EPA to ease its draft pharmaceutical waste rule's determination that returned drugs are "waste" once they reach a reverse distributor, arguing for changes as the agency eyes issuing a final rule this summer.

Faced with bipartisan opposition in Congress, top EPA officials appear to have abandoned earlier plans to consolidate agency regions and are now being urged to target some regions' staffing levels as part of their effort to ensure greater consistency in how regional offices oversee state programs.

The Energy Department's environmental management (EM) office is seeking to revamp its relationships with cleanup regulators, eying Superfund reforms EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is implementing, such as revisions to the dispute resolution process, as well as the Trump administration's broader regulatory review push.

Top Democrats are intensifying their calls for President Donald Trump to fire EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt after Kevin Chmielewski, a top political appointee at the agency who clashed with Pruitt, detailed in a recent interview a host of the administrator's ethics and spending practices that have created a crisis that continues to plague the EPA chief.

EPA's Inspector General (IG) has released an "alert" memo that appears to indicate controversial raises for several agency staff using Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) authority were authorized by agency Chief of Staff Ryan Jackson, though it remains unclear whether Administrator Scott Pruitt knew about or approved the pay hikes.

Environmentalists are renewing their calls for EPA to craft a drinking water standard for the rocket fuel ingredient perchlorate after a peer review panel found that the latest version of the agency's model to inform development of a health goal for the substance is "fit for purpose."

The United States and state of Colorado are both partially objecting to recommendations by a federal magistrate judge in a case where the state is seeking claims against the Army and Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) to force them to comply with post-closure waste requirements at a former arsenal, testing the state's ability to enforce land use controls at contaminated sites.