EPA Proposes Major Coal Ash Rule Changes in 2026: What Actually Moves and What Stays
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EPA Proposes Major Coal Ash Rule Changes in 2026: What Actually Moves and What Stays

EPA proposed sweeping CCR rule amendments on April 9, 2026. Here's what utilities actually need to do—and what remains mandatory through 2031.

by iSi Environmental

On April 9, 2026, EPA announced sweeping amendments to the federal Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) regulations, and the proposal published in the Federal Register on April 13, 2026 (FR doc 2026-07061; Docket EPA-HQ-OLEM-2020-0107; 40 CFR Part 257). National headlines read “EPA weakens coal ash rules.” Your plant manager heard that and assumed your facility just caught a break. Your environmental compliance officer knows better.

⚡ TL;DR: EPA’s 2026 CCR proposal would rescind the CCRMU requirements outright, add a closure-by-removal certification pathway, and loosen beneficial-use rules — but groundwater monitoring, FER deadlines, closure obligations, and post-closure care remain binding law until a final rule survives the near-certain litigation. Comments closed June 12, 2026; the only window still open (June 29) belongs to a different rulemaking.

The April 2026 proposal is real, and it goes further than most early coverage suggested — but it is NOT current law. Core monitoring and closure deadlines remain intact. Your facility’s obligations don’t change until EPA finalizes these amendments and, in approved-program states, the state adopts them.

⚠️ What’s at stake: RCRA civil penalties run up to $93,058 per day per violation under the current inflation-adjusted schedule (40 CFR 19.4, penalties assessed on or after January 8, 2025). EPA’s recent CCR settlements — $71,845 at AES Puerto Rico, $134,500 at Public Service Company of Colorado, $185,927 at Keystone-Conemaugh — all came with groundwater monitoring and corrective action obligations on top of the penalty (EPA enforcement news release). Citizen suits under RCRA Section 7002 operate independently of any of it.

Here’s what actually changed, what stays, and what you need to do between now and 2031.

What the April 2026 Proposal Actually Does

The proposal — formally the Legacy/CCRMU Amendments — targets the compliance architecture the 2024 Legacy Final Rule (89 FR 38950) built for legacy surface impoundments and CCR management units. Six moves, per the published proposal:

1. Full Rescission of CCRMU Requirements

This is the headline item. Under the 2024 Legacy Rule, utilities had to identify and evaluate “CCR management units” — areas where coal ash was historically placed outside of lined disposal units: structural fills, roadbed bases, historical ash placement zones on utility property.

The 2026 proposal would not merely make CCRMU identification “less prescriptive.” As published, it would rescind all CCRMU requirements outright, while taking comment on narrower alternatives (FR doc 2026-07061).

What this means for you: Do not stop FER work. Rescission is a proposal, not law, and the February 9, 2027 FER Part 1 deadline (91 FR 5806) is binding today. Suspending CCRMU evaluation on the strength of a proposed rule that environmental groups are already positioned to challenge is betting your compliance posture on a litigation outcome.

2. A New Closure-by-Removal Certification Pathway

The proposal creates an additional certification option for legacy impoundments closed by removal before November 8, 2024, where the closure was completed under the oversight of regulatory authorities. It would also modify or remove three of the eligibility criteria for the deferral available to those early-closed units.

What this means for you: If your facility — or a property you acquired — closed a legacy impoundment by removal before November 8, 2024, start assembling the regulatory-oversight paper trail now: state correspondence, closure approvals, oversight documentation. The proposed pathway turns entirely on proof the closure happened under regulatory supervision.

3. Beneficial Use Restrictions Loosened

The proposal would eliminate the environmental demonstration requirement for non-roadway beneficial uses above 12,400 tons of unencapsulated CCR, and would exclude cement-kiln use, FGD gypsum in agriculture, and FGD gypsum in wallboard from federal CCR regulation entirely.

What this means for you: This opens beneficial-use markets and cuts paperwork — but it is a narrowing, not an elimination, for what remains regulated.

4. Dewatering Structure Flexibility

Certain CCR dewatering structures would be exempted from Part 257. Closure timelines don’t move, but the engineering pathway gets more flexible for units working through dewatering.

5. Site-Specific Alternative Compliance Pathway

The proposal would let permit authorities set site-specific groundwater points of compliance, establish cleanup levels for constituents without a maximum contaminant level (MCL), and make closure determinations — shifting judgment calls from the self-implementing federal rule to permit writers.

Which CCR Comment Window Is Still Open?

Two separate comment clocks ran this spring, and they are widely confused — including in industry coverage.

The Legacy/CCRMU Amendments comment period is closed. Comments closed June 12, 2026 — 60 days after the April 13 Federal Register publication — and EPA held its online public hearing on May 28, 2026 (EPA 2026 proposed amendments page).

The Federal CCR Permit Program comment period is open until June 29, 2026. On May 28, 2026, EPA reopened the comment period on the 2020 Federal CCR Permit Program proposed rule (85 FR 9940) for 30 days (91 FR 31684; FR doc 2026-10641). Comments go to Docket EPA-HQ-OLEM-2019-0361 by June 29, 2026. The permit program is the vehicle through which the proposed site-specific compliance pathway would actually operate — which is why EPA reopened it alongside the amendments. We covered the permit program reopening in detail in our breakdown of the federal CCR permit program.

If your facility would live under a federal CCR permit, the June 29 filing is the one that shapes how permit writers exercise the discretion the amendments would hand them.

What Does NOT Change — The Non-Negotiable Requirements

The headlines about “weakened rules” create a false impression. Four core compliance obligations remain in place, unchanged, through 2031 and beyond.

Groundwater Monitoring Remains Mandatory

All CCR units must have groundwater monitoring systems with at least one upgradient and three downgradient wells. When statistical increases are detected, you move to assessment monitoring and develop a corrective action plan.

The 2026 proposal does not touch these requirements for regulated units.

Facility Evaluation Reports (FERs) Still Due

Your facility must complete two mandatory reports, on deadlines set by the February 10, 2026 CCRMU Deadline Extension Rule (91 FR 5806; FR doc 2026-02599):

  • FER Part 1 (documenting historical CCR placement, plus the public CCR website): Due February 9, 2027
  • FER Part 2 (physical site evaluation to identify CCRMUs): Due February 8, 2028

The 2026 proposal may eventually eliminate what FER Part 2 feeds into (the CCRMU program), but the deadlines and obligations do not move until a final rule says otherwise. You cannot wait for rule finalization to start FER Part 1.

Closure Deadlines and Post-Closure Care Hold

In late 2025, EPA extended the closure deadline for unlined CCR surface impoundments larger than 40 acres to October 17, 2031. The 2026 proposal does not shorten or eliminate that obligation. And once a CCR unit is closed, the facility enters a 30-year post-closure care period — groundwater monitoring, cover integrity inspections, leachate management. Close a unit in 2031, and you are monitoring it through 2061.

The Extended Deadline Schedule (91 FR 5806)

If your compliance calendar is still built on pre-February 2026 deadlines, it’s outdated. The CCRMU Deadline Extension Rule reset the schedule:

ObligationOriginal DeadlineExtended DeadlineCitation
FER Part 1 + public CCR websiteFebruary 9, 2026February 9, 202791 FR 5806
FER Part 2Through 2026February 8, 202891 FR 5806
CCRMU groundwater monitoring system installationMay 8, 2028February 10, 203191 FR 5806
Unlined impoundment >40 acres closureOctober 17, 2028October 17, 203190 FR (Nov 2025 extension)

Why the Rollback Is Not a Done Deal

Plan for the rule you have, not the rule the press release promised. Three counter-signals say this proposal faces a hard road to becoming — and staying — law.

The litigation posture is loaded. The 2024 Legacy Rule was itself the product of litigation involving Earthjustice, the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Environmental Integrity Project, and the Sierra Club — and the Supreme Court denied a stay of the Legacy Rule in 2024. Environmental groups citing EPA’s own data — 91% of monitored coal ash sites exceed groundwater protection standards for arsenic, mercury, or other toxics — are positioned to challenge any final CCRMU rescission (Harvard EELP coal ash rule tracker). Expect any final rule to spend years in court.

EPA is enforcing while it deregulates. Coal ash is a National Enforcement and Compliance Initiative for FY2024–2027 (“Protecting Communities from Coal Ash Contamination”) (EPA NECI page). The same agency proposing rescission settled three CCR enforcement actions in the past cycle — Public Service Company of Colorado ($134,500 plus groundwater cleanup), AES Puerto Rico ($71,845 plus groundwater monitoring and landfill reporting), and Keystone-Conemaugh Projects ($185,927 across four impoundments) — and in FY2025 finalized orders requiring groundwater monitoring, remediation, and penalties at facilities in Illinois and New York (EPA enforcement news release). The deregulatory signal and the enforcement signal point in opposite directions. The enforcement signal carries a penalty schedule.

Citizen suits don’t read press releases. RCRA Section 7002 lets third parties enforce Part 257 directly — the 2015 rule’s self-implementing structure was built for exactly that. A relaxed federal enforcement posture does not reduce citizen-suit exposure by one dollar. In iSi’s region, the 2022 Evergy Kansas Central settlement at the retired Tecumseh facility — a $120,000 penalty plus corrective action — remains the closest enforcement precedent.

💰 The exposure math: $93,058 per day per violation statutory maximum (40 CFR 19.4) — and the mandated groundwater monitoring, corrective action, and remediation work routinely costs multiples of the penalty itself.

State Program Reality: Five Approved Programs, and a Lag

Not all facilities are regulated by the federal CCR rule directly. Five states hold EPA-approved CCR permit programs: Oklahoma, Georgia, Texas, North Dakota, and Wyoming. In those states, the state permit — not the federal self-implementing rule — is the operative compliance instrument, and federal amendments do not change facility obligations until the state adopts them.

Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska have no approved CCR program — the federal Part 257 rules apply directly.

In iSi’s service region, that means:

  • Kansas utilities (Evergy and others): Federal rules apply directly. The April 2026 proposal affects your compliance pathway immediately upon finalization — and so does any litigation stay.
  • Texas and Oklahoma facilities: TCEQ and Oklahoma DEQ run their own permit programs. State adoption of federal amendments typically lags EPA finalization by 12–18 months; until then, the state program as written governs.

Your CFO sees “EPA relaxes coal ash rules” and assumes faster compliance. Your environmental team knows the real work happens at the state agency — or in court.

The Practical Compliance Calendar: 2026 Through 2031

Regardless of where the proposal lands:

By June 29, 2026: File comments on the Federal CCR Permit Program if the federal permit regime will govern your facility (Docket EPA-HQ-OLEM-2019-0361; 91 FR 31684).

By February 9, 2027: Complete FER Part 1 and stand up the public CCR website (91 FR 5806).

By February 8, 2028: Complete FER Part 2 — physical site evaluation and CCRMU identification (91 FR 5806). The work-intensive phase.

By February 10, 2031: Install groundwater monitoring systems at all CCRMUs (91 FR 5806). If CCRMUs aren’t identified by 2028, you’re racing to build monitoring wells by 2031.

By October 17, 2031: Close all unlined CCR surface impoundments larger than 40 acres. Post-closure monitoring begins immediately and runs 30 years.

What You Should Do Right Now

  1. Keep FER Part 1 moving. February 9, 2027 is binding law; CCRMU rescission is a proposal in a docket. Roughly 8 months remain. Do not let a press release stop a deliverable.

  2. Assemble the pre-November 2024 closure-by-removal paper trail. If any impoundment on your property was closed by removal before November 8, 2024, gather the state oversight documentation now. The proposed certification pathway turns on proving regulatory-authority oversight, and that proof gets harder to reconstruct every year.

  3. Decide on the June 29 filing. The permit program reopening is the only live comment window. If your facility sits in Kansas, Missouri, or Nebraska — federal-rule states — the permit program is how site-specific compliance decisions would actually get made.

  4. Verify your groundwater monitoring program. Wells at active units must stay on schedule; CCRMU systems are due February 10, 2031. Five years disappears fast once well siting, installation, and background sampling rounds are on the calendar.

  5. Plan for two compliance scenarios. Closure design, beneficial use strategy, and CCRMU work may change — or may not, if the final rule stalls in court. Build both branches into engineering and budget forecasts through 2028.

  6. Audit your post-closure obligations. Closing any unit in the next five years commits you to 30 years of monitoring — three decades of recordkeeping that citizen-suit plaintiffs can read.

Every compliance program starts with knowing where the gaps are. iSi Environmental helps utilities and industrial facilities manage CCR compliance calendars, groundwater monitoring programs, state permit requirements, and closure documentation. We provide facility-specific compliance roadmaps and regulatory engagement support. Schedule a compliance assessment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What does EPA’s 2026 CCR proposal actually change?

The Legacy/CCRMU Amendments (published April 13, 2026; FR doc 2026-07061) would rescind all CCRMU requirements, create a closure-by-removal certification pathway for legacy impoundments closed before November 8, 2024 under regulatory oversight, exempt certain dewatering structures, allow site-specific groundwater compliance decisions through permits, and loosen beneficial-use rules. None of it is law yet.

Q: Is the CCR comment period still open?

The comment period on the Legacy/CCRMU Amendments closed June 12, 2026, and EPA held the public hearing May 28, 2026. The only open window is the reopened comment period on the 2020 Federal CCR Permit Program proposed rule, which closes June 29, 2026 (91 FR 31684; Docket EPA-HQ-OLEM-2019-0361).

Q: When do utilities need to complete Facility Evaluation Reports?

FER Part 1 (historical coal ash placement documentation plus the public CCR website) is due February 9, 2027. FER Part 2 (physical site evaluation and CCRMU identification) is due February 8, 2028. Both deadlines were set by the February 2026 extension rule (91 FR 5806) and do not change under the April 2026 proposal.

Q: What are the penalties for CCR violations?

RCRA civil penalties run up to $93,058 per day per violation under the current inflation-adjusted schedule (40 CFR 19.4, for penalties assessed on or after January 8, 2025). Recent EPA settlements ranged from $71,845 to $185,927, each with groundwater monitoring or corrective action obligations on top. RCRA Section 7002 citizen suits add independent exposure.

Q: What should utilities in states with approved CCR programs do?

Oklahoma, Georgia, Texas, North Dakota, and Wyoming run EPA-approved CCR permit programs — there, the state permit is the operative compliance instrument, and federal amendments don’t bind until the state adopts them, typically 12–18 months after EPA finalization. Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska facilities follow the federal Part 257 rules directly.

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