Michael Regan Selected To Lead Biden's EPA
Along with a new president of the United States, a new leader will take the mantle at the preeminent federal body responsible for drinking water and wastewater regulations.
“President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Michael S. Regan, who heads the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, as the next Environmental Protection Agency administrator,” per The Washington Post. “Regan, 44, would be the first Black man to run the EPA.”
Regan’s appointment would likely mark a sea change for the U.S. EPA, which has reversed or weakened more than 100 environmental rules under President Donald Trump and current Executive Director Andrew Wheeler. Biden ran on a campaign that promised to highlight renewable energy and work to slow or stop climate change. It’s likely that stricter federal source-water protection measures, wastewater treatment regulations, and drinking water contaminant guidelines could arrive under Regan’s leadership.
To this point, one of Regan’s best-known accomplishments was holding a regional energy company responsible for contaminating source water in North Carolina.
“Regan has served as North Carolina’s top environmental official since early 2017,” the Post reported. “During that time, he forged a tough multibillion-dollar settlement over coal ash cleanup with Duke Energy.”
Regan also has a record on a water issue that will likely be high on Biden’s priority list as he steps into his new role: per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) contamination.
“He is credited … for ordering the chemical company Chemours, a former DuPoint subsidy, to take fresh steps to clean up toxic substances known as PFAS from the Cape Fear River,” according to The New York Times. “Such contaminants have been called ‘forever chemicals’ because they do not break down in the environment and can build up in human bodies.”
But some environmentalists have criticized Regan’s record as one that does not demonstrate enough of a commitment to protect the planet’s resources.
“Mr. Regan has also faced criticism, including from groups that focus on environmental justice, who have accused him of not standing up enough to fossil fuel and agricultural interests,” per the Times. “Under Mr. Regan, the state agency granted a water quality certification to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which would have carried natural gas across the Appalachian Trail.”
But, regardless of his past record, Regan will now have a chance to solidify his regulatory reputation through the nation’s highest environmental rulemaker. Drinking water and wastewater treatment operations should be watching his tenure closely.
To read more about the federal laws that dictate drinking water treatment, visit Water Online’s Drinking Water Regulations And Legislation Solutions Center.