The EPA Clean Water Rule: What Do the Changes Mean and How Will they Impact Your Business?

Why Should You Attend:

The proposed revisions to the Clean Water Act regarding how the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) are defined has attracted the highest level of attention from the incoming 114th Congress, which has already developed a list of EPA regulations worthy of greater scrutiny. Will the WOTUS rule survive the 114th Congress? If so, how will it impact the regulated community?

Duties assigned to employees who work in regulatory affairs are not taught in college or vocational schools. One of the best ways to learn how to be effective in regulatory affairs is to learn directly from those doing it. This presentation, in addition to teaching attendees about upcoming regulatory compliance issues, will provide helpful hints and resources for all levels of experience. Small companies or those newer to the field may benefit particularly from the knowledge imparted in the presentation.

This presentation will provide:

• Knowledge of proposed (and existing) legislation that impacts a wide variety of stakeholders, including agricultural companies and producers, energy companies, and water management entities
• Resources for understanding federal rulemaking
• Resources to interact with the federal government during rulemaking
• Tips and tools that companies (large and small) could use to enhance their regulatory affairs/compliance profile

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the legal basis for the WOTUS revisions to CWA
• Understand how current implementation and enforcement works
• Identify the major revisions being proposed for WOTUS
• Understand the perspectives of EPA as well as impacted stakeholders on the revisions
• Gain an increased awareness of the current legal and political climate that threatens adoption of the WOTUS proposal
• Gain an increased awareness of the federal regulatory process
• Gain an increased awareness of how regulatory staff can interact with the government and others during the rulemaking process to effect positive change

Areas Covered in the Webinar:

• Clean Water Act (CWA)
• Waters of the United States Definition
• Proposed EPA Clean Water Rule
• Regulatory Affairs
• Legislative History
• CWA Reform Efforts
• Implementation and Enforcement
• Regulation of Industrial Chemicals

Who Will Benefit:

This webinar will provide valuable assistance to all personnel in:

• Small businesses responsible for compliance with environmental laws
• Private landowners responsible for compliance with environmental laws
• Local and state government officials with responsibility towards compliance with environmental laws
• Agricultural cooperative extension service agents and staff
• Regulatory affairs officers from large businesses and corporations
• Trade associations that represent landowners, businesses and public groups impacted by regulation of surface water in the United States

Instructor Profile:

Erik R. Janus is the president of M³ Technical & Regulatory Services LLC, a consulting firm offering technical and analytical services in a wide variety of areas to support the future of chemical risk assessment.

Mr. Janus is an environmental health science, risk assessment and regulatory toxicology expert with over 20 years of experience in a wide variety of sectors, including roles in academia, state and federal government agencies, corporations and trade associations and non-governmental organizations. Mr. Janus specializes in the science and regulation related to pesticides (agricultural and antimicrobial) and endocrine-disrupting chemicals (i.e. Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, US EPA Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program) and has actively advocated for reduction of animal use in the testing of chemicals for many years. He currently holds leadership roles in the Society of Toxicology, Society of Risk Analysis and the International Society of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology.

Topic Background:

The proposed revisions to the Clean Water Act regarding how the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) are defined are complex and vast, posing a number of challenges to both implementation and enforcement to a much wider array of stakeholders since its passage in 1972. The WOTUS revisions proposed in March 2014, now referred to as the Clean Water Rule, were almost a decade in the making following some key court decisions. These revisions have been the subject of both a massive public relations campaign on the part of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as a massive amount of public response, as evidenced by the volume of comments submitted to the docket.

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