The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will review and reconsider revisions to technology-based effluent limitations guidelines (ELG) and standards finalized by the Obama administration in September 2015.

Power generators around the nation have been readying to comply with the rule that sets the first federal limits on the levels of toxic metals in wastewater discharges from steam electric power plants. Plants had been expected to comply with the rule between 2018 and 2023, depending on when they need a new Clean Water Act permit.

As with nearly every environmental rule promulgated by the Obama administration, the ELG rule has been challenged in court by a coalition of utilities led by the Southwestern Electric Power Co. That case, Southwestern Elec. Power Co. v. EPA, et al, No. 15-60821, currently under review by the Fifth Circuit, consolidates seven separate petitions for review.

According to a statement issued by the EPA on April 13, the agency said it would review and reconsider the rule, which it noted, “has been estimated to cost $ 480 million per year and has a reported average cost of $ 1.2 billion per year during the first five years of compliance.”…

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