Click here to view the Vice President's remarks


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Work Plan for Columbia/Snake Temperature TMDLs MOA between states and EPA


Senators' Letter

Activists Urge EPA To Develop Rigorous Mercury Reduction Policies


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AGENCY OFFICIALS STALL HAZARDOUS WASTE TESTING REVISIONS

EPA is postponing work on revisions to the primary test method used to determine whether a waste should be considered hazardous, creating a backlog of other rules that can only go forward once the test revisions are complete. Sources say the reason for the delay is that agency waste officials are scrambling to complete a raft of waste listing rules required under a consent agreement with Environmental Defense (ED). EPA in 1998 announced that it would revise the test, called...

EPA MULLS RULE TO EXEMPT RECYCLED MATERIALS FROM RCRA

EPA is considering a rulemaking that would for the first time exempt materials from the definition of a solid waste if they are recycled. The move follows a renewed industry push for the relief after a court ruled that some recycled materials are not wastes and because companies think the new administration will be more receptive to their lobbying. The decision to consider possible rules and other options represents a shift in EPA position, since the agency decided after last...

INDUSTRY URGES EPA TO LOOSEN HAZARDOUS WASTE LISTINGS RULES

Industry officials are asking EPA to adopt a new approach for determining when a waste is hazardous so as to regulate wastes based on the amount of known hazardous constituents that they contain, rather than using the traditional approach that regulates a waste if it can simply be shown it has a hazardous characteristic. Industry sources say they find the "characteristics" approach overly broad in most circumstances, while the concentration-based approach will be more accurate and will provide for greater...

STATE WASTE OFFICIALS SEEK LARGER ROLE IN EPA POLICY DECISIONS

State waste officials are launching a coordinated effort to significantly boost their role in federal Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) and Superfund policy decisions, arguing that as states shoulder more of the on-the-ground regulatory and enforcement responsibilities, they should have a greater role in policy development. As part of the Association of State & Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials' (ASTSWMO) five-year agenda, the group claims that states will be adopting a larger leadership role in implementing environmental programs and...

EPA APPROVES HAZARDOUS WASTE MANIFEST RULE AMID DOJ CONCERNS

The White House Office of Management & Budget signed off on an EPA rule to establish an electronic reporting system for hazardous waste shipments, following a two-month long suspension of the rule for agency review. However, agency sources say there are still concerns at EPA and the Justice Department (DOJ) as to how the agencies will be able to track abuse and fraud in the new electronic system. The effective date of the rule, which authorizes a standardized electronic reporting...

ACTIVISTS BLAST EPA PLAN TO DELAY RAMP-DOWN ON TOXICS IN COMPUTERS

Environmentalists are blasting an EPA decision to put on hold plans to mandate that new personal computers (PCs) comply with environmentally friendly design requirements, such as bans on lead use, and instead focus on the recycling of PC components. While EPA officials announced April 18 that the agency plans to expand an international guidance on PC recycling, the agency has confirmed it will not at present pursue efforts to mandate that new PCs comply with environmentally friendly design requirements. Industry...

APPEALS COURT LIMITS EPA AUTHORITY TO ORDER SUPERFUND CLEANUPS

A federal appeals court has ruled that the Constitution's prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure bars EPA from ordering Superfund cleanups at a facility without first obtaining evidence that contamination at the site constitutes a threat to human health and the environment. Agency officials say this is the first case to successfully challenge EPA's authority to perform cleanup actions based on the Constitution's search and seizure rules. The April 18 decision, which upholds a lower court's ruling against EPA, effectively...

EIGHTH CIRCUIT REDEFINES DIVISIBILITY UNDER JOINT & SEVERAL LIABILITY

LITY A federal appeals court has ruled that liability for commingled wastes can be allocated among liable parties under the Superfund law's joint & several liability scheme if the potentially responsible party (PRP) can show when they contaminated the site, the volume of contaminants they released or by using "other means." A legal observer says the decision, the first time the circuit has broadly interpreted divisibility, may aid PRPs in reducing damages at sites where they are jointly and severally...

FUNDING FOR BROWNFIELDS BILL'S $250 MILLION IS UNCERTAIN, SOURCES SAY

Despite broad support for the Senate's brownfields redevelopment bill, securing the $250 million the bill authorizes is highly uncertain because strict federal spending caps will make it difficult for appropriators to find the funds for any new spending, according to a number of congressional and industry sources. In addition, the Bush administration, which supports the legislation, failed to request any additional funds for brownfields programs in its fiscal year 2002 budget request April 9. While the bill's popularity may aid...

DESPITE SENATE APPROVAL, FINAL PASSAGE OF BROWNFIELDS BILL REMAINS UNCERTAIN

The Senate has unanimously approved a bipartisan bill to clean up industrial waste sites, referred to as brownfields, by granting states the final word on decontaminating the sites. But final passage of the bill by the House remains uncertain. The bill has the support of President Bush, and was passed April 25 by the Senate after a change of heart by several key Republican senators -- Mike Crapo (R-ID), George Voinovich (R-OH) and James Inhofe (R-OK) -- who had earlier...

GOVERNORS BLAST DOE EFFICIENCY PLAN TO ADDRESS CLEANUP CUTS

The National Governors Association (NGA) is rejecting DOE Secretary Spencer Abraham's call for state support of his plan to deal with a $364 million cut in cleanup funding by making the department more efficient. NGA says the effort will not make up for the cuts in cleanup funding and unnecessarily duplicates NGA's efforts. Abraham recently sent a letter sent to state governors and EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman asking for them to provide personnel to help improve the department's efficiency...

NEW YORK ENVIRONMENT CHIEF URGES PASSAGE OF PATAKI SUPERFUND BILL

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Erin Crotty is urging the state's legislature to pass Gov. George Pataki's (R) controversial Superfund Reform legislation, which environmentalists claim weakens state cleanup standards and provisions forcing industry to pay for cleanups. Pataki introduced the legislation earlier this year, and members of the Democrat-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate have also introduced competing bills, which sources say will lead to contentious battles between the two houses of the legislature and the governor over...

SIX TIMES MORE GE PCBs ON LAND THAN IN HUDSON RIVER, REPORT SAYS

A report compiled by an environmental database development firm claims that General Electric dumped six times more polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) onto land in New York than are currently contaminating the state's Hudson River, a Superfund site which is estimated to contain millions of pounds of the toxic chemical. The report was released just before the public comment period on EPA's $460 million cleanup plan for the Hudson River closed. A 200-mile stretch of the New York River is contaminated with...

HOUSE LAWMAKERS INTRODUCE BILL TO REAUTHORIZE OMBUDSMAN

House lawmakers have introduced a bill to reauthorize the EPA Superfund ombudsman office as the sponsors of the companion Senate bill are asking the EPA administrator to delay finalizing a controversial agency ombudsman guidance document, which lawmakers say allows the agency too much control over the investigative office. The lawmakers are concerned that the guidance will limit the Ombudsman's role at sites in their districts, like the Stauffer, FL, Coeur d'Alene, ID and Shattuck, CO sites. Rep. Mike Bilirakis (R-FL)...

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