EPA To Roll Back Coal-Fired Power Plant Wastewater Rules

As part of the recent administration’s efforts to loosen environmental rules for fossil fuels, the U.S. EPA signaled its intention to delay the compliance deadline for effluent limitations targeting coal-fired power plants. The agency did so in July 2025 in a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for Eighth Circuit in St. Louis, Missouri.

Earlier in the year, a coalition of trade groups and 22 states, led by West Virginia, brought a lawsuit against the EPA for its 2024 rules, which established more stringent effluent limitations and pretreatment standards for wastewater discharges from coal-fired power plants, specifically for flue gas desulfurization wastewater, bottom ash transport water (BATW), and combustion residual leachate. The original compliance deadline was Dec. 31, 2029.

The EPA asked the court to pause litigation while it reviews the rules and deadlines. The agency plans to seek additional information on zero-discharge technologies — including new performance data and cost estimates — to assess whether further rulemaking on these standards would be appropriate. It also intends to revise the technology basis for limitations in discharges of unmanaged combustion residual leachate and the zero-discharge limitations and standards.