EPA Announces It Will Reconsider 2024 Water Pollution Limits for Coal Power Plants to Help Unleash American Energy (ELG: Steam Electric)
WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it will revise costly wastewater regulations for coal burning power plants issued in 2024. This action advances the goals of President Trump’s Unleashing American Energy Executive Order by ensuring the country has reliable, affordable electricity while protecting our nation’s water resources under the Clean Water Act.
“President Trump’s direction is clear, and EPA is committed to delivering on his vision for American energy dominance,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. “By reviewing the Biden-era rule establishing discharge limits for coal-fired power plants under the Clean Water Act, we will ensure that all Americans can rely on low-cost electricity while also protecting our nation’s water resources.”
The effluent limitations guidelines and standards (ELGs) for the Steam Electric Power Generating industry apply to power plants that generate electricity through the creation of steam. The 2024 regulations established stringent discharge standards for four wastewaters generated at these facilities: flue gas desulfurization wastewater, bottom ash transport water, combustion residual leachate, and legacy wastewater.
EPA will reconsider these standards, including technology-based ELGs it promulgated for leachate under the 2024 Supplemental Steam Electric ELGs, which are projected to cost the industry hundreds of millions of dollars that could be passed on to consumers. As part of this effort, the agency will consider how it might provide immediate relief from some of the existing leachate requirements. In a series of related actions, the agency will also provide clarifying updates to other leachate requirements from the same rule to prevent unintended misapplication of the existing rule. Additionally, the agency will reevaluate existing information on the availability and cost of membrane technology.
The 2024 rule is currently being challenged in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. EPA has received two petitions for reconsideration from the Edison Electric Institute and Utility Water Act Group, trade associations representing electric utilities.
This was announced in conjunction with a number of historic actions to advance President Trump’s Day One executive orders and Power the Great American Comeback. Combined, these announcements represent the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in the history of the United States. While accomplishing EPA’s core mission of protecting the environment, the agency is committed to fulfilling President Trump’s promise to unleash American energy, lower costs for Americans, revitalize the American auto industry, restore the rule of law, and give power back to states to make their own decisions.
Learn more about the Steam Electric ELG regulations.
Background:
ELGs are national industry-specific wastewater regulations based on the performance of demonstrated wastewater treatment technologies (often called “technology-based limits”). They are intended to represent the greatest pollutant reductions that are economically achievable for an entire industry.
Steam electric plants use fossil fuels (such as coal, oil, and natural gas) or nuclear reactions to heat water in boilers, which generates steam. The steam is used to drive turbines connected to electric generators. The plants generate wastewater in the form of chemical pollutants and thermal pollution from their water treatment, power cycle, ash handling and air pollution control systems, as well as from coal piles, yard and floor drainage, and other miscellaneous wastes.
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