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In furtherance of the administration’s plan to increase the resiliency of federal actions, President Obama released a new Executive Order 13690, “The Federal Flood Risk Management Standard,” as directed by the President’s Climate Action Plan. Notably, the order expands the definition of “floodplain” (higher flood elevation and expanded flood hazard areas) that all federal agencies must use – and builders must follow – for all federally-approved or funded projects. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is soliciting public input on newly released “guidelines” that will instruct federal agencies on how to implement the new Federal Flood Risk Management Standard (FFRMS).

Members of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee held a joint hearing to examine the state and local impact of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ proposed rule expanding jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act.

Final WOTUS Rule Expected Spring 2015 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Research and Development released the final version of the much-anticipated report providing the main scientific underpinning for its “Waters of the U.S.” (WOTUS) proposed rule. As �鶹��Ƶ expected, the report concludes that streams, wetlands and riparian areas are connected to downstream waters, and that isolated waters influence these waters also (albeit to a sometimes lesser degree). This final report incorporates feedback from the EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) panel convened to review the document.

Refresher Training for Renovators May Move to Entirely Online Format On Jan. 14, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed revisions to the Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) rule that would eliminate the requirement that the renovator refresher training have a hands-on component and extend the recertification deadline for a portion of renovators, so they can take advantage of this change. The proposal would also eliminate the need to pay accreditation and certification fees in the multiple states where EPA administers the program for Lead-based Paint (LBP) Activities (abatement, inspection and risk assessment). In addition, EPA proposes to clarify certain responsibilities for training providers under both the RRP and LBP Activities programs.

As of Dec. 19, 2014, if you own or operate a non-recreational vessel less than 79 feet in length (such as a ferry, tug/tow boat, barge, cargo freighter, etc.) in any “waters of the Unites States,” you need to secure coverage under an National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit before you may legally discharge ballast water from these small commercial vessel.

Construction contractors will have an easier time learning how to comply with federal and state environmental guidelines thanks to a new partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the private sector. The partnership between �鶹��Ƶ of America, EPA and the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) will allow for a significant upgrade to the Construction Industry Compliance Assistance website, or CICA Center for short, association officials noted.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released a new policy memo on using numeric effluent limits in stormwater permits in areas with pollutant-impaired waters (to reduce pollutant discharges and address water-quality impairments). �鶹��Ƶ is encouraged that EPA has, once again, recognized that a best management practice (BMP) or “adaptive management BMP approach” is an effective means of achieving water quality objectives.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Dec. 19 that it will not regulate coal combustion residuals (CCR), including fly ash, as a hazardous substance and by doing so will preserve the future beneficial use of this product in concrete and most other construction applications.  �鶹��Ƶ has been actively involved in working to convince EPA that a hazardous designation was unnecessary and would have an extremely detrimental impact on the future use of fly ash and raise liability concerns about its previous use. 

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