CWA Hazardous Substances FRP: Implementation Delay Loading

ALL4 has been tracking the Clean Water Act (CWA) Hazardous Substances Facility Response Plan (FRP) rule since the proposed rule was published in 2022. The final rule was published last year, and even before the 2024 election, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) was raising the alarm that resources to implement the rule (or lack thereof) could result in implementation delays. In late 2024, U.S. EPA was targeting late 2025 to provide guidance on the rule, including the nebulous and extensive modeling requirements. Fast forward to mid-2025, following the change in administration, headcount reduction across the federal government, and industry pushback (including a letter from the Alliance for Chemical Distribution requesting recension of the rule, among others), implementation delay now appears certain.

What Do We Know?

Per an American Public Power Association article published in early June 2025, U.S. EPA plans to issue a notice soon that will extend the compliance deadline by up to five years. The notice may be issued as an interim final rule (IFR) which would become effective upon publication in the Federal Register. The current deadline for initially regulated facilities is June 1, 2027; a five-year delay would push that date to 2032.

According to the same article, U.S. EPA will issue a second notice, an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) seeking input on a number of changes to the rule, including:

• Changes or clarifications to definitions including adverse weather conditions and conveyance;
• Increasing the threshold quantity to the originally proposed 10,000x reportable quantity (RQ) rather than the 1,000x reportable quantity (RQ) in the final rule;
• Guidance on measuring the one-half mile screening criterion;
• Modifying requirements around modeling the impact of worst case discharges and the substantial harm certification form;
• Removing mention of environmental justice and climate change; and
• Modifying exemptions including substances covered by 40 CFR Part 112 (Oil Pollution Prevention Program) and “wastewater treated by privately owned treatment works under National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permits;”
• Changing how chemical reaction intermediates and byproducts are to be treated; and
• Changing FRP requirements.

Many of the proposed clarifications will be welcome news to those who have spent time attempting to decipher the rule and its applicability to their facilities.

Where Do We Go From Here?

ALL4 will continue tracking for updates and keeping our readers informed as U.S. EPA publishes notices related to the CWA Hazardous Substances FRP rule. If you have already begun applicability evaluations based on the current threshold quantities, we recommend completing those analyses and keeping them available and accessible for consideration in the future.

For more information on the current rule, check out ALL4’s previous blogs and webinars. If you have any questions, please reach out to me at lsmith@all4inc.com.