EPA, NRDC Agree on Six-Month Delay for Perchlorate Rule

American Chemistry Council
The Week in Chlorine Chemistry Report
The Element of Surprise
October 11, 2019

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) have agreed to extend the deadline for the agency to finalize a rule on perchlorate in drinking water by six months, reports Inside EPA (October 4 – subscription required). In an October 1 filing with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, EPA and NRDC say, “the parties have stipulated to extend the deadline for EPA to sign for publication in the Federal Register a final maximum contaminant level goal (MCLG) and a national primary drinking water regulation (NPDWR) for perchlorate from December 19, 2019, to June 19, 2020,” states the newsletter; this follows EPA’s previously announced six-month delay in issuing the proposed version of the rule. Last May, EPA proposed an MCLG and Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of 56 micrograms perchlorate per liter of water (ug/L or parts per billion [ppb]), notes Inside EPA; “in that proposal, the agency also asked the public to comment by Aug. 26 on a variety of other options including setting levels more and less stringent or not regulating the chemical at all in drinking water, given new information on occurrence levels.”

When EPA proposed the perchlorate rule, “it sought comment on setting the MCL and MCLG at 18 ug/L, 90 ug/L, or withdrawing EPA’s 2011 determination to regulate perchlorate at all in drinking water,” writes the newsletter. “As such, the proposal could test the agency’s discretion under SDWA to forgo setting an enforceable standard, an area of that law that sources say is still evolving,” says Inside EPA.

"For more information contact: Mark Gibson, with the American Chemistry Council (202) 249-6738.