Je veux savoir à propos de…

jbell on DSKJLSW7X2PROD with RULES

Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 114 / Wednesday, June 16, 2021 / Rules and Regulations that EPA has unnecessarily complicated the regulation. Some stakeholders suggest that the agency should eliminate the new trigger level and instead lower the 15 ppb action level.
Some stakeholders have indicated that the agency has provided too much flexibility for small water systems and that it is feasible for many of the systems serving 10,000 or fewer customers to take more actions to reduce drinking water lead levels than those actions under the LCRR. Other stakeholders have highlighted the limited technical, managerial, and financial capacity of small water systems and support the flexibilities provided by the LCRR to all of these small systems.
Stakeholders have divergent views of the school and childcare sampling provisions of the LCRR; some believe that the sampling should be more extensive, while others do not believe that community water systems should be responsible for provisions and that such a program would be more effectively carried out by the school and childcare facilities.
Finally, some stakeholders have expressed concerns that the agency did not provide adequate opportunities for a public hearing and did not provide a complete or reliable evaluation of the costs and benefits of the proposed LCRR.
In addition, the LCRR has been challenged in court by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Newburgh Clean Water Project, NAACP, Sierra Club, United Parents Against Lead, and the Attorneys General of New York, California, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia. Those cases have been consolidated in Newburgh Clean Water Project, et al. v EPA, No. 211019
D.C. Cir.. EPA also received a letter on March 4, 2021, from 36 organizations and 5 individuals requesting that EPA
suspend the March 16, 2021 effective date of the LCRR to review the rule and initiate a new rulemaking. EPA also received a letter on February 4, 2021, from the American Water Works Association requesting that EPA not delay the rule.
Consistent with Executive Order 13990 and the Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies titled, Regulatory Freeze Pending Review 86 FR 7424, January 28, 2021, EPA decided to review the LCRR. EPA published a final rule on March 12, 2021 86 FR 14003, which provided for a short delay of the LCRRs effective date from March 16, 2021 to June 17, 2021, to allow the agency to
VerDate Sep<11>2014

15:52 Jun 15, 2021

Jkt 253001

seek comment on a separate proposal, also published on March 12, 2021 86
FR 14063, to extend the effective date further to December 16, 2021. EPA
explained that the further delay was needed to allow the agency adequate time to conduct a thorough review of the complex set of LCRR requirements and to assess whether the regulatory changes are inconsistent with, or present obstacles to, the policy set forth in Section 1 of Executive Order 13990, and to consult with stakeholders, including those who have been historically underserved by, or subject to discrimination in, Federal policies and programs prior to the LCRR going into effect. In the proposal, EPA also sought comment on an extension of the compliance dates by nine months from January 16, 2024, to September 16, 2024.
The LCRRs effective date i.e., when the rule is codified into the Code of Federal Regulations is different from the compliance dates. Section 1412b10 of the Safe Drinking Water Act SDWA specifies that drinking water regulations shall generally take effect i.e., require compliance three years after the date the regulation is promulgated.1 This 3-year period is used by states to adopt laws and regulations in order to obtain primary enforcement responsibility primacy for the rule and by water systems to take any necessary actions to meet the compliance deadlines in the rule. EPA
is extending the January 16, 2024
compliance date in the LCRR by nine months to October 16, 2024, to correspond to the delay in the effective date. EPA set the compliance date to October 16, 2024, to be consistent with its intent, described in the proposal, to provide a full nine month delay, to maintain the same time period between the effective date and the compliance date in the LCRR, published on January 15, 2021. EPA expects that the duration of the compliance date extension will provide drinking water systems with adequate time to take actions needed to assure compliance with the LCRR after it takes effect.
EPA recognizes that under Section 1413a1 and 40 CFR 142.12b, states must submit complete and final requests for approval of program revisions to adopt new or revised EPA regulations 1 In this action, EPA uses the term compliance date to refer to the date water systems must comply with national primary drinking water regulations referred to as the effective date in Section 1412b10 of the SDWA and the term effective date to refer to when the rule is codified into the Code of Federal Regulations see Section 553d of the Administrative Procedure Act and 1
CFR 18.17.

PO 00000

Frm 00037

Fmt 4700

Sfmt 4700

31941

not later than two years after promulgation of the LCRR with the possibility for an extension of up to two years based on certain criteria in EPAs regulations. After completion of the stakeholder engagement process, EPA
will consider whether to let the rule take effect on December 16, 2021, with a compliance deadline of October 16, 2024, or whether the agency intends to initiate a new rulemaking to withdraw or modify the LCRR. At that time, EPA
and states will have greater clarity with respect to the primary enforcement primacy application process and relevant timeframes. If EPA decides to withdraw the LCRR before it takes effect, then there will be no revised regulation that triggers the duty for primacy agencies to submit a program revision to EPA since the previous regulation i.e., those regulations that are in place until such time that the LCRR takes effect will remain in effect.
If EPA modifies the LCRR, the agency will establish a new deadline for primacy applications as a part of that regulatory action. If EPA decides to make no further changes to the rule, the agency intends to use the date on which EPA announces that decision in the Federal Registerno later than December 16, 2021as the promulgation date for the LCRR for purposes of the primacy revision application deadline under 40 CFR
142.12b1. Accordingly, EPA
recommends that states consider each of these possibilities in their planning and resource allocation decision-making and that states do not submit primacy applications to the agency at this time because EPA is not expecting to begin review of primacy packages until there is more certainty as to the agencys path forward on the LCRR.
II. Importance of EPAs Review of the LCRR for Protection of Public Health The impact of lead exposure, including from drinking water, is a public health issue of paramount importance and its adverse effects on children and the general population are serious and well known. For example, exposure to lead is known to present serious health risks to the brain and nervous system of children. Lead exposure causes damage to the brain and kidneys and can interfere with the production of red blood cells that carry oxygen to all parts of the body. Lead has acute and chronic impacts on the body.
The most robustly studied and most susceptible subpopulations are the developing fetus, infants, and young children. Even low-level lead exposure is of particular concern to children because their growing bodies absorb
E:FRFM16JNR1.SGM

16JNR1