The following topics have been identified as research priorities for Regulatory Reform:

1. Evaluate existing delegation of wastewater authorities and programs between state and local agencies, and environmental and public health agencies, and develop models for effective consolidation and/or inter- and intra-agency coordination



2. Define and develop the necessary elements of performance-based codes (for example, permitting and tracking systems)



3. Evaluate the potential for national performance standards to increase the acceptance of decentralized systems



4. Develop minimum performance standard(s) (not prescriptive)



5. Evaluate the costs and benefits of performance-based codes



6. Develop model performance standards



7. Create a national model framework addressing standards and performance evaluation for adoption by states