EPA's recently proposed cooling water and air toxics rules for the utility sector aim to provide flexibility in how facilities choose to comply with the new standards, a concession to industry that some say could generate goodwill from some members of the sector and ease concerns about a regulatory "train wreck" facing the industry. The agency March 28 proposed its section 316(b) Clean Water Act rule for cooling water intake structures (CWIS) at power plants and manufacturing facilities, relying on case-by-case assessments for technology mandates favored by industry rather than an across-the-board requirement for closed-loop cooling towers that environmentalists had sought. The rule comes just days after EPA March 16 proposed a Clean Air Act maximum achievable control technology standard to cut air toxics from coal- and oil-fired power plants. That rule has prompted more outcry from industry and others than the cooling water rule over its potential costs, but in the proposal EPA still attempts to provide at least some flexibility in meeting its requirements such as setting work practices instead of numerical limits for organic air toxics and likely providing an extra year to comply with the rule.
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