Waste

White House officials are staying “tight-lipped” on the content of EPA’s pending “phase two” proposal to overhaul the Obama-era coal ash disposal rule undergoing pre-publication review, after ash reuse industry representatives met with administration officials and urged them to address several flaws in the rule through the proposal.

Wastewater and drinking water utilities are raising concerns about some lawmakers’ efforts to force EPA to list a whole class of perfluorinated chemicals as “hazardous substances” under the Superfund law, saying it could create cleanup liability for systems that have land-applied their biosolids or disposed of waste from drinking water treatment.

A bipartisan group of senators say they remain hopeful that legislative language requiring EPA to designate perfluorinated compounds as “hazardous substances” subject to liability under the Superfund law will eventually be included in the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill, which is slated for consideration later this week.

EPA says it may provide guidance to its regions on facilitating the use of what has been a little-used “look first” approach -- where regulators first pursue third parties, such as environmental remediation contractors or real estate investors, after potentially responsible parties (PRPs) transfer their cleanup obligations to them in settlements.