EPA plans to cut 2015 regulation limiting coal-fired power plant pollution

August 22nd, 2017 by Dakota Software Staff

In an August 11 letter, as reported by Mining.com, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt detailed plans for his agency to rescind an Obama-era environmental regulation that placed limitations on the amount of toxic wastewater coal-fired power plants are allowed to produce.

A letter from Pruitt was addressed to the Utility Water Act Group and the U.S. Small Business Administration, which filed petitions in March and April asking the EPA to reevaluate the November 2015 ruling titled "Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Steam Electric Power Generating Point Source Category."

According to the Denver Post, the administrator responded to the petitions from the two groups in April and promised to look into whether or not a reevaluation of the rules was necessary.

"After carefully considering your petitions, I have decided that it is appropriate and in the public interest to conduct a rulemaking to potentially revise [the regulations]," Pruitt wrote.

The agency will accept public comment on the issue and take the case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, where it was recently denied permission to halt a rule limiting methane emissions by oil and gas companies.

Power plant wastewater could cause significant health problems

The pollution limitations were established in 2015 to replace outdated rulings and information last updated in 1982. These limits are based on technological advancements of the last thirty years within the steam electric power industry and were designed to modernize facilities, making them more efficient and environmentally friendly.

In a statement released by the EPA originally announcing the rule, they agency noted chemicals such as aluminum, mercury, zinc, lead, arsenic, selenium and many others are often generated by steam electric power plants. When natural environments are exposed to these chemicals, they can remain polluted for years. Many of these substances are linked to, developmental disorders in children and various diseases and cancers.

"These cost-effective, achievable limits will provide significant protections for our children and communities across the country, including minority and low-income communities, from exposure to pollutants that can cause neurological damage in children, cancer, and other serious health problems," said Gina McCarthy, EPA administrator at the time the ruling was introduced.

Estimates indicated the implementation of the rule would force around 12 percent, or 134, of the steam electric power plants in the country to make improvements to the technologies at their facilities. However, it would also provide an estimated $463 million annual benefit for Americans.

Scott Pruitt filed his letter to with the Fifth Circuit U. S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans on August 14, which will review the legal challenges of the ruling. In the meantime, the EPA asked the courts to halt any legal suits as the agency moves to rewrite the mandate, which comes as one of many in a long string of attempts to reduce the number, prevalence, and impact of regulations in the energy industry.