The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued two regulatory notices to modify compliance deadlines for select provisions published in the Federal Register on May 8, 2024, dealing with “legacy” or inactive coal combustion sites with inactive coal combustion residuals (CCR) impoundments.
The May 8, 2024, rule (Legacy Final Rule) established regulatory requirements for legacy CCR surface impoundments (many of which are unlined) and CCR management units (CCRMU) under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).
The first notice is for a proposed rule seeking public comment to establish an additional option for owners or operators of active CCR facilities or inactive CCR facilities with a legacy CCR surface impoundment to comply with the Facility Evaluation Reports (FER) and to extend compliance deadlines for the remaining CCRMU provisions published in the Legacy Final Rule.
The second notice is for a direct final rule addressing these factors with an effective date of January 22, 2026, if no adverse comments are received by August 21, 2025, on the proposed rule and also adds an additional three months for groundwater monitoring and assessment. Rationale for the Direct Final Rule date extensions includes time needed to access historical CCR disposal records, seasonal fieldwork limitations, contractor shortages and inadequate time for report preparation.
Notably, the proposed rule would extend by one year from May 2028 to May 2029 the installation, sampling, and assessment of groundwater monitoring systems at CCR impoundments. Likewise the groundwater monitoring compliance report would be delayed from January 2029 to January 2030.
Previously, NGWA has observed that the impacts of unlined and clay lined coal ash surface impoundments to groundwater quality have been well documented, posing endangerment to groundwater sources of private, public and homeowner water systems. NGWA has also expressed preference for a shortened time to end CCR accumulation in unlined surface impoundments.
Click here to read the proposed rule.
Click here to read the direct final rule.