EPAWATCH Drinking-water data collection rule delayed The Information Collection Rule (ICR) will not be finalized for at least two months, subsequently slowing associated drinking-water rules on microbial presence and disinfection byproducts, Office of Water officials said. And although these rules are high on a new priorities list for the office, items with lesser priority such as a rule on sulfates in drinking water may be delayed even longer for lack of funding. The ICR was scheduled to be finalized in February, but because of the shutdown, the final rule will not be issued until late April, according to Stig Regli of the Office of Ground and Drinking Water. Delaying the ICR subsequently prevents the agency from collecting data needed to develop amendments to the enhanced surface water treatment rule. These amendments would establish standards for the presence of such microbial contaminants as Cryptosporidium and Giardia in drinking-water supplies, said Regli. The ICR will also regulate the collection of data that will be used to model the creation of disinfection byproducts in water treatment systems, Regli said. The models will then be used to develop regulations that would establish drinking-water standards for disinfection byproducts. Rules governing microbes and disinfection byproducts have increased priority for the Water Office. A notice by Office of Ground and Drinking Water Acting Director Peter Cook published in November {Federal Register 1995, 60(229), 61254] proposed elevating disinfection byproducts and microbial contamination to the highest drinking-water priorities. The limited budget authorized in the continuing resolution will likely push lower priority items out of the picture, according to Jan Auerbach, also of the Office of Ground and Drinking Water.
Regulatory delays The federal budget impasse between Congress and the President forced EPA and several other agencies to shut down from Dec. 16 to Jan. 6. Since that time, two continuing resolutions have been signed to keep the agencies open through March 15, albeit with reduced budgets. As a result of the shutdown, several major agency rules and initiatives were delayed. In this issue, EPA Watch assesses the effect of the shutdown on key agency programs.
Ambient air standards get Air Office priority The Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) must establish new priorities and focus on regulations that are under court order to as a result of the shutdown, OAR officials said. And the need "to go back and reassess what we've done instead of moving forward with the process" will add significant time to major rulemakings, said OAR's Jeff Clark. New national ambient air quality standards for ground-level ozone and particulate matter will remain a high priority, according to Jerry Kurtzweg, director of OAR's Office of Program Management Operations. These standards were scheduled to be revised this summer, and Kurtzweg said EPA will try to maintain that schedule. The shutdown has delayed work on several rules that are already behind schedules laid out in the Clean Air Act. A final maximum achievable control technology (MACT) rule governing non-combustion-based pulp and paper mills emissions was due in March. It will not be finished until about August, Clark said. He added that several MACT rules governing such industries as primary copper, primary aluminum, and plastics manufacturing, all due to be proposed or promulgated, will be pushed back more than a month.
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Shutdown delays are yet another woe to the agency with respect to MACT rules because EPA has long been behind in completing them (ES&T, June 1995, 243A). Many MACT rules that were supposed to be completed in November 1994 remain unfinished, and EPA is expecting to miss several November 1997 deadlines for others. A new source performance standard on medical waste incinerators was supposed to be finalized in April but has been pushed back indefinitely. Because the rule is under a court-ordered deadline, OAR must work with the litigants and courts to reschedule the promulgation deadline, Clark said. Discussions are only just beginning. According to Kurtzweg, industry will likely have to wait a year for a federal program on emissions trading to move forward. Air officials were hoping to have rules in place by May, so that companies could begin trading at the beginning of the smog season this summer. Because of the shutdown, that schedule cannot be kept, he said.
Solid waste office focuses LDRs/combustion rule Deadlines for several major solid waste rules have been pushed back, and as a result of limited funding in the continuing resolution, the Office of Solid Waste (OSW) will focus only on rules with court-ordered deadlines, according to OSW officials. The Phase III land disposal restrictions final rule under a consent decree was supposed to be signed by Jan. 16. Finalization of the rule, which would regulate wastes that are ignitable, corrosive, reactive, or have high toxicity as well as several specific hazardous wastes, was pushed back to Feb. 16, said James Berlow, a senior OSW official. A final rule that would regulate combustion emissions from incinerators, cement kilns, and lightweight aggregate kilns had to be extended to Feb. 20. The rule was extended
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