The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) announced on June 18 that they have not come to an agreement on a new schedule and terms for the stormwater rulemaking effort. They have however, developed a near-term agreement that EPA and CBF will meet by July 18 to negotiate a path forward over a 60-day time period.

If an agreement is not reached after the 60-day window, legal actions will be triggered, and the rule will be sent to a judge for a ruling on future actions. CBF has stated that EPA is now in breach of its settlement agreement that originally spurred the rulemaking. EPA will continue moving forward on the development of the proposed rule. They “remain committed to proposing revisions to stormwater regulations as expeditiously as possible.”  At this time, the proposed rule has not yet entered into the “options selections” phase, which normally takes 2-4 weeks before it is sent on to the Office of Management and Budget where a 90-day review is anticipated.