The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it will modernize outdated regulations on wastewater discharges for oil and gas extraction facilities to lower energy costs while supporting environmentally sustainable water reuse. This action advances the goals of President Trump’s Unleashing American Energy Executive Order.
The agency’s review will evaluate modern technologies and management strategies to provide regulatory flexibility for oil and gas wastewater – also known as produced water – to be treated for beneficial reuse, including for Artificial Intelligence and data center cooling, rangeland irrigation, fire control, power generation, and ecological needs.
“EPA is playing a central role delivering on President Trump’s energy agenda,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. “EPA will revise wastewater regulations from the 1970s that do not reflect modern capability to treat and reuse water for good. As a result, we will lower production costs for oil and gas extraction to boost American energy while increasing water supplies and protecting water quality.”
EPA’s rulemaking to revise the regulations will consider expanding opportunities for using treated wastewater, such as extraction of lithium and other critical minerals
Under current regulations, discharge of treated wastewater is only allowed for agricultural and wildlife water uses in the western United States. EPA will consider expanding the geographic scope where treated wastewater can be used and discharged in the United States. In addition to prioritizing cost savings, EPA’s rulemaking to revise the regulations will consider expanding opportunities for using treated wastewater, such as extraction of lithium and other critical minerals. EPA will also explore additional flexibilities to discharge treated wastewater from centralized wastewater treatment facilities that manage wastewater produced in the extraction of oil and gas.
The Clean Water Act requires EPA to revise industry-wide wastewater treatment limits, called effluent limitations guidelines, to keep pace with innovations in pollution control technology. Technologies to treat produced water to a quality for safe discharge and reuse have become more effective and affordable.
This was announced in conjunction with a number of historic actions to advance President Trump’s Day One executive orders and Power the Great American Comeback. Combined, these announcements represent the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in the history of the United States. While accomplishing EPA’s core mission of protecting the environment, the agency is committed to fulfilling President Trump’s promise to unleash American energy, lower costs for Americans, revitalize the American auto industry, restore the rule of law, and give power back to states to make their own decisions.
