Pruitt proposes changes in dredged or fill material discharge permits

June 28, 2018
US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator E. Scott Pruitt proposed changes in EPA’s role in issuing permits for discharges of dredged or fill materials under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. “These regulations were last revised nearly 40 years ago—at a time in our history when environmental safeguards and analytical methods were far less developed than today,” he said in a June 26 memorandum. 

US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator E. Scott Pruitt proposed changes in EPA’s role in issuing permits for discharges of dredged or fill materials under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. “These regulations were last revised nearly 40 years ago—at a time in our history when environmental safeguards and analytical methods were far less developed than today,” he said in a June 26 memorandum.

Any new regulations should try to address concerns surrounding EPA’s prior use of its veto authority before a permit application has been filed or after a permit has been issued, Pruitt said.

“This long overdue update to the regulations has the promise of increasing certainty for landowners, investors, businesses, and entrepreneurs while preserving EPA’s authority to restrict discharges of dredged or fill material that will have an unacceptable adverse effect on water supplies, recreation, fisheries, and wildlife,” he said.

The memo directs EPA’s Office of Water to develop proposed rules which would:

• Eliminate the authority to initiate the Section 404(c) process before a Section 404 permit application has been filed with the US Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) or a state, otherwise known as the “preemptive veto.”

• Eliminate the authority to initiate the Section 404(c) process after a permit has been issued by ACE or a state, otherwise known as the “retroactive veto.”

• Require an EPA regional administrator to obtain approval from headquarters before initiating the Section 404(c) process.

• Require a regional administrator to review and consider the findings of an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement prepared by ACE or a state before preparing and publishing notice of a proposed determination.

• Require EPA to publish and seek public comment on a final determination before such a determination takes effect.

The proposal, after undergoing interagency review, will be available for public review and comment, EPA said.

US Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John A. Barrasso (R-Wyo.) applauded the memo directing EPA’s Office of Water to make what he considers commonsense changes to how the agency considers dredge and fill permit applications. “In the past, the agency has sent mixed messages to companies seeking permits. Today’s action is the first step to stop the agency from unfairly using the permitting process to slow projects,” he said.

Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].