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This Week at the Environmental Protection Agency — week of July 13, 2026

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This week’s EPA actions were almost entirely administrative: updating records, aligning state plans with federal rules, and making technical corrections. The changes most likely to affect everyday life are an air quality status update for Canton, Ohio, and a pause on penalties that protects Pennsylvania’s federal highway funding.

Air quality actions affecting communities and states

  • Canton, Ohio: EPA approved a plan from the Ohio EPA addressing lead levels in the air around Canton. The action officially moves the area out of a category requiring stricter oversight and into one that meets national safety standards.
  • Pennsylvania: EPA issued an interim final determination that pauses sanctions against the state over its plan to control volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which contribute to ground-level ozone. This prevents Pennsylvania from losing federal highway funds and facing other penalties while EPA works on formal approval of the state’s new plan.
  • Pennsylvania (proposed): EPA proposed approving four updates to Pennsylvania’s air quality plan covering ozone control. The updates adjust technical requirements for certain chemical manufacturing processes.
  • Iowa: EPA approved changes to Iowa’s State Implementation Plan and operating permit program, aligning state rules with recent updates to the Iowa Administrative Code.
  • Antelope Valley, California: EPA finalized approval of seven rules from the Antelope Valley Air Quality Management District governing pollution permits, ensuring local regulations meet federal standards so industrial projects can be legally permitted.

Power plant–specific updates

  • Oak Creek, Wisconsin (proposed): EPA is considering a state request to change how the Oak Creek Power Plant manages its emissions. The proposed rule concerns nitrogen oxide limits at the facility.
  • Castleton, New York (proposed): EPA proposed approving a change to New York’s state air quality plan specific to the Castleton Energy Center in Castle-on-Hudson. The update sets out how the facility complies with federal air quality standards.

Engine and turbine emissions technical corrections

  • Heavy-duty engines (proposed): EPA proposed changes to how heavy-duty engines are regulated starting in model year 2027, including how long regulatory useful life and warranty periods must last, plus corrections to existing rules. The changes matter most to diesel engine manufacturers and the companies operating those engines.
  • Gas turbines: EPA corrected technical errors in a final rule on performance standards for stationary combustion and gas turbines, which originally took effect January 15, 2026.

Coal ash oversight

  • Alabama (proposed): EPA proposed letting the Alabama Department of Environmental Management take over certain oversight duties for coal ash management, shifting authority from the federal government to the state.
  • Coal ash disposal permitting (proposed): EPA is exploring how to make the permitting process more flexible for electric utilities handling coal combustion residuals, including rules for groundwater monitoring, site cleanup, and facility closure.

Air quality and permitting paperwork

  • Missouri (proposed): EPA proposed updating how Missouri regulates nitrogen oxide emissions from large, stationary internal combustion engines. The change is administrative, aligning state reporting rules with federal standards rather than setting new pollution limits.
  • Nebraska: EPA accepted the state’s formal statement—called a “negative declaration”—that no industrial incinerators in Nebraska currently need new air pollution rules. A separate proposed rule would also accept the same declaration.

Pesticide residue limits

  • Bacteriophage pesticides: EPA exempted two specific types of bacteriophages—viruses that kill certain bacteria—from the requirement to have a tolerance, or residue limit, on food or feed. The action allows these products to be used on crops without meeting standard pesticide residue limit requirements.

This weekly agency digest is generated from federal records (the Federal Register and Congress.gov) and summarized in plain English. It may simplify or omit detail — follow the linked official sources before relying on any item. Part of The Boring Parts.

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