The Environmental Protection Agency is making several updates to its rule on lead in drinking water, including a lower allowable limit and an order for utilities to map all service lines containing lead. If lead levels exceed the new 10 parts per billion standard, utilities must work with their state to replace lines containing lead and reevaluate their treatment processes.

The EPA's decision to reverse changes to the renewable fuel standard has relieved farmers, particularly in South Dakota, where 40 percent of corn crops are used to produce ethanol. Small refinery exceptions have created a hardship for ethanol producers like Poet, which had to close an Indiana facility because of lowered demand for ethanol due to refinery exemptions.

When Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler was nominated for his position, he promised to pursue a drinking water standard for PFAS, but he appears to be heading in the opposite direction by opposing a hazardous designation for the substances, writes Scott Faber of the Environmental Working Group. "Despite the risks posed by PFAS pollution, Wheeler's EPA has done nothing to reduce ongoing releases of PFAS into the air and water," Faber writes.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency says that the removal of nine dams on the Mahoning River will allow the river to self-clean through its natural flow. Bill Zawiski, the state EPA's supervisor of water quality, says wildlife will also benefit from the removal of the dams, which do not provide flood control.