The Rundown
- Reclamation’s draft Colorado River report floats the idea of a short-term agreement while states continue to negotiate water cuts and reservoir operating plans.
- House spending bill maintains water infrastructure funding but cuts EPA budget.
- President Trump pulls the U.S. out of international environmental organizations.
- White House finalizes a rule to let agencies determine the extent of their environmental reviews under NEPA.
- EPA publishes a national “sewershed” map.
- House Republicans fail to reverse Trump veto of a Colorado water project.
- House Democrat introduces bill to regulate data center energy generation and monitor water use.
- Army Corps finalizes general Clean Water Act permits for construction, including data centers.
And lastly, the U.S. Forest Service will study post-wildfire forest recovery efforts.
“Restoring forests after a wildfire is not something we can delay, especially when public safety is at stake. Post-fire recovery actions need to be immediate and comprehensive to protect the future of our forests and the people who depend on them.” – Tom Schultz, U.S. Forest Service chief, in a written statement about the agency’s intention to assess efforts to repair forests and watersheds after a wildfire. The environmental assessment will study actions that are similar across forest types – things like tree removal, stream restoration, and reforestation. Individual post-fire projects will still require site-specific analysis. The timeline is quick. Public comments are being accepted through January 26 via www.regulations.gov using docket number FS-2025-0034. The Forest Service expects to publish the assessment in April.
In context: As Flames Scorch Western Forests, Flagstaff Area Offers Roadmap for Post-Wildfire Flood Prevention
By the Numbers
248: Votes in the Republican-led House to overturn President Trump’s veto of a bill that would have helped complete the Arkansas Valley Conduit, a water supply project in southeastern Colorado. Because a two-thirds majority is required to reject a veto, the measure failed. It was about 40 votes short. The bill had initially passed by a voice vote, which indicates broad bipartisan support.
News Briefs
Proposed Perchlorate Standard
After roughly two decades of scientific assessment, legal wrangling and court cases, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed a federal limit for perchlorate in drinking water.
The chemical – found in rocket fuel and fireworks – interferes with thyroid function and harms fetal and infant brain development. The agency is reluctantly considering a regulatory standard of 20, 40, or 80 parts per billion.
In its proposal the agency objected to setting a standard and noted that its hand is forced. Administrator Lee Zeldin determined that “there is no [regulatory limit] at which the benefits of treatment at a limited number of systems justify the costs of monitoring across systems where perchlorate is not expected to occur at levels of concern.” But a legal settlement with the Natural Resources Defense Council requires the agency to act.
The agency is seeking public comment through March 9 via www.regulations.gov using docket number EPA-HQ-OW-2024-0592.
Budget Doings
The House passed a minibus spending package for energy and environment agencies that includes a nearly 4 percent cut to the EPA budget.
In nominal terms, not accounting for inflation, this would be the agency’s smallest budget since fiscal year 2017. Staff levels would likely fall to a near 40-year low.
Some programs are not being cut. The revolving funds – the main federal vehicles for water infrastructure funding – are steady at $1.638 billion for the clean water and $1.126 billion for drinking water.
Earmarks remain a part of the budget process. Representatives directed money to specific wastewater treatment projects or research centers or lead pipe replacements. Here’s a list for the environmental agencies.
The earmarks, however, have a drawback. The money will be taken out of the revolving funds. This has happened for several years now. Critics argue that continuing to do so will jeopardize and deplete the revolving funds. A large chunk is at stake in this bill. Some 54 percent of the clean water fund and 64 percent of the drinking water fund is set aside for earmarks.
Congress has a January 30 deadline to pass a budget before the current continuing resolution expires.
Limiting Environmental Reviews
The White House Council on Environmental Quality, which had overseen federal environmental review policy, finalized a rule that delegates that authority to the agencies, which will now set their own parameters for assessing the impacts of major federal actions.
CEQ argues that its authority to issue rules to other agencies was revoked by President Trump last year in an executive order.
The final rule is not changed from an interim rule that was published in February 2025.
Clean Water Act Permits
The Army Corps finalized its roster of nationwide general permits that authorize construction projects under the Clean Water Act.
The permits, which allow for quicker processing, are intended to be for projects that have minimal harmful environmental impacts.
The Corps explicitly added data centers to the commercial development category. It also maintained a nationwide permit for oil and gas pipelines.
U.S. Withdrawal
President Trump deepened the country’s isolation by announcing his intent to withdraw from scores of international environmental organizations and other multilateral entities.
The list includes 31 U.N. instruments, among them the climate change convention, the water agency, and the oceans agency. It adds multinational scientific bodies that investigate climate change (IPCC), biodiversity (IPBES), ecosystem conservation (IUCN), and renewable energy. Also, for good measure, the International Cotton Advisory Committee and the Global Counterterrorism Forum.
The withdrawal extends to regional concerns such as the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, a partnership with Canada and Mexico that was born alongside the continent’s free trade agreement in 1994.
Studies and Reports
Colorado River Negotiations
The Bureau of Reclamation released its long-awaited draft report on operating the Colorado River system after current rules expire at the end of 2026.
The rules have been in place for 20 years. The report says that the federal government, which operates the basin’s big reservoirs, prefers a new deal of similar length.
But because states have not been able to agree on how to share the burden of a shrinking river, the Interior Department, Reclamation’s parent agency, has lowered its expectations. Interior “remains open to a shorter duration or phased implementation as part of a longer-term framework.”
The report, which does not choose a preferred management option, includes a bare-bones alternative that could be implemented for next year if the states cannot agree on a long-term plan. In this scenario, lower basin states could see shortages up to 1.48 million acre-feet, which would be allocated “consistent with priority system.” That means Arizona, as the junior user, would bear the brunt and California would be untouched.
The states have a February 14 deadline to submit a consensus plan for reducing their reliance on the river.
Water Recycling in the West
The Government Accountability Office, Congress’s watchdog, evaluated a $450 million water recycling grant program run by the Interior Department and authorized through the Biden-era infrastructure bill.
Interior, through the Bureau of Reclamation, pledged about $308 million to five projects (four in California and one in Utah). The rest of the funds are in limbo while the Trump administration reviews the program.
Among the lessons learned: Almost two years passed between the bill’s signing and Reclamation’s notice of funding opportunity. That’s because no large-scale projects were ready. Feasibility studies, which are not funded by the program, were not ready or needed to be updated.
On the Radar
Data Center Regulation
Two bills introduced in the House by Rep. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) would regulate data center energy generation and monitor water use.
The PRICE Act would require data centers to generate all the electricity they consume. It sets increasing targets for use of clean energy, rising to 100 percent by 2040.
The Data Center Transparency Act would require the EPA to submit quarterly reports to Congress on data center water and energy consumption. The reports would also list data center water reuse, pollution discharge, and impacts on local water supplies.
In context: Data Center Energy Demand Is Putting Pressure on U.S. Water Supplies
Sewersheds
The EPA published a national map that shows the geographic boundaries in which wastewater flows.
The pipes that comprise these “sewersheds” are akin to the rivers and streams that create a watershed. A wastewater treatment plant is the endpoint of the sewershed, where the treated effluent is discharged into the environment.
The agency will hold a public webinar to explain the mapping project. The webinar will be January 14 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. Join via this link, no registration required.
House AI Hearing
On January 14, a House Science subcommittee will hold a hearing on the country’s AI plan. Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, will testify.
Federal Water Tap is a weekly digest spotting trends in U.S. government water policy. To get more water news, follow Circle of Blue on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter.
