RFF EVALUATING TRUST FUNDS TO MAINTAIN LAND USE CONTROLS

Resources for the Future (RFF) is in the process of finalizing a report that analyzes the possible use of various types of trust funds as a way to provide long-term stewardship of contaminated sites, including federal sites. Traditionally, the Defense Department has opposed the use of trust funds, largely on the grounds that federal appropriations cannot earn interest. But some types of trust funds may have applicability for federal sites, said Kate Probst, one of the study's authors, June 20...

DTSC ANNOUNCES EARLY TRANSFER OF NAVY PROPERTY TO ALAMEDA

The California Environmental Protection Agency's toxics department recently announced the early transfer of the U.S. Navy's Fleet & Industrial Supply Center (FISC) to the city of Alameda. Under the transfer agreement, the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) will continue to provide regulatory oversight and long-term monitoring. "This early transfer enables the state and the city of Alameda to transition a former military installation into an economic anchor for the community," said DTSC Director Ed Lowry. "It provides a new...

INTERAGENCY DIOXIN REVIEW FOCUSES ON PUBLIC COMMUNICATION OF RISKS

EPA has released its long-awaited dioxin reassessment, but agency officials note that an interagency review remains ongoing on the adequacy of the agency's science and communication of risks to the public. The reassessment has the potential to require additional cleanup at DOD sites, as well as affect permit requirements for the Army's chemical weapons incinerators, sources say. Insistence by other federal agencies that deal with public health issues for an interagency review, coordinated by the White House, delayed EPA's planned...

ARMY FEARS MILCON CUTS MAY DELAY CHEM DEMIL PROGRESS

Despite fully funding the administration's request for chemical demilitarization in its fiscal year 2001 military construction appropriations bill, Congress identified unobligated funds in the current chemical weapons destruction budget that could be used to help pay a $25 million bill for an unrelated military construction project, Army sources say. The conference report, passed by both the House and Senate late last week, includes a general reduction of $20 million against the entire chemical demilitarization program. Although both the House and...

SCIENCE PANEL MAY ASK EPA TO BOOST ARSENIC DRINKING WATER LIMIT

EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB) may recommend EPA more than double its proposed standard for arsenic in drinking water, breaking sharply with agency officials who have pushed forward extremely tight limits despite pressure from Congress, industry and drinking water officials. During a recent meeting of the board's Drinking Water Committee (DWC), members of the panel discussed recommending levels of 15, 10 and 20 parts per billion (ppb), well above EPA's favored level of 5 ppb, sources close to the issue...

FREQUENT WATER RULE CHANGES MAY ARM INDUSTRY LEGAL ATTACK

A recent spate of changes to EPA's embattled Clean Water Act impaired waters proposal could aid industry in future litigation over the rule, attorneys for industry argue, because the changes were made solely to garner support for the rule from the environmental community and may violate the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). The APA sets the standards federal agencies must follow in developing rules and regulations, and requires extensive public involvement for substantive changes. Meanwhile, the rule is gaining some support...

EPA CONSIDERS REGULATING DRINKING WATER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS

EPA is commencing work to determine if regulations are needed to set rules for how drinking water facilities manage their distribution systems, including requirements on materials for pipes and maintenance, according to EPA, state, and drinking water industry sources. But industry and state sources caution that implementing distribution system regulations could be exceptionally expensive. EPA is concerned drinking water may become re-contaminated as the water is distributed to consumers. EPA is preparing a white paper outlining possible regulatory options for...

GAO REVIEWING FEDERAL AGENCIES' TRACK RECORD ON 'GREEN' BUYING

The General Accounting Office (GAO) has begun work on a review of federal agencies' compliance with federal requirements to buy products with recycled content, sources say. In part, the review will look at how the use of government "credit cards" has complicated compliance with green purchasing requirements, since minimal records are produced when government credit cards are used, says one source. The examination comes as a federal work group has written a draft proposal for streamlining reporting requirements for recycled-content...

DOD RELEASES REPORT ON ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The Defense Department last month released its first-ever report on environment, safety and occupational health accomplishments. It details successful endeavors over the past seven years and covers much of the same ground that DOD Deputy Under Secretary for Environmental Security Sherri W. Goodman highlighted in a March 28 speech at the National Defense Industrial Association's annual environmental symposium ( Defense Environment Alert , April 4, p7). The Environment, Safety and Occupational Health Report covers the topics of international environment, worker...

GAO URGES AGAINST FIXED PRICE CONTRACTS AT LARGE DOE CLEANUP SITES

The General Accounting Office (GAO) late last month told lawmakers that while fixed price contracts may reduce Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear waste cleanup costs at some sites, they should not be used for large, complex cleanups. The GAO's testimony came at a House Commerce Committee hearing where Republicans grilled officials from DOE and British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) about the department's recent cancellation of its contract with BNFL to clean up the Hanford, WA, nuclear waste disposal site. Republicans...

PHILIPPINES CONTAMINATION ISSUE RESURFACES IN FOREIGN AID BILL

An effort to address U.S. military contamination left in the Philippines has resurfaced in Congress, this time in a $5 billion foreign aid authorization bill. Both the Senate and the House versions of the bill include a "sense of the Congress" language calling on the U.S. government to work with the Philippines government in identifying and addressing contamination left there by the U.S. military. According to S. 2382, the Technical Assistance, Trade Promotion, and Anti-Corruption Act of 2000, the State...

HOUSE LAWMAKERS RAISE CONCERNS ABOUT YUCCA MOUNTAIN MILESTONES

House lawmakers questioned the Energy Department's (DOE) ability to meet milestones for the construction of a national high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, NV, even as the department is again evaluating bids for re-competing the contract to manage and operate the waste disposal site. Lawmakers raised the concerns at a House Commerce Committee energy and power subcommittee hearing June 23 on the status of DOE's program to develop the repository. Sixty-five metric tons of Navy spent fuel is expected...

EPA RELEASES REGULATORY COMPLIANCE GUIDE FOR SHIP SCRAPPERS

EPA last week issued a regulatory compliance guide for ship scrappers, designed to assist site supervisors at ship-scrapping facilities with an overview of the pertinent federal environmental and worker safety requirements. Past problems with widespread violation of these requirements provoked congressional hearings and caused the Navy, EPA and other federal agencies to recommend ways to make the ship disposal process safer ( Defense Environment Alert , April 21, 1998, p3). The document, A Guide for Ship Scrappers -- Tips on...

DEVELOPER TO PAY FOR ARMY AMMUNITION PLANT CLEANUP IN KANSAS

State regulators in Kansas have moved a controversial, precedent-setting cleanup-for-land deal one step further toward finalization, proposing a final draft consent order that will require an amusement park developer to clean up thousands of acres of excessed Army property, much of which is contaminated. Supporters of the deal are praising it, saying it provides a way for funding cleanup without expending taxpayer dollars, but critics say the local community has been backed into a corner, forced to accept a new...

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ACTIVISTS DEMAND WHITE HOUSE AVOID 'BUSINESS-AS-USUAL' IN CLIMATE TALKS

Environmentalists are demanding that the White House support tightening controls on international greenhouse gas emissions trading programs, strengthening enforcement provisions and closing alleged loopholes in the use of so-called "carbon sinks" as emission offsets under the international Kyoto Protocol on global warming during an international meeting on the treaty in November. An influential coalition of environmental organizations earlier this month gave the White House a detailed list of demands the environmental community wants U.S. delegates to support at the meeting...

Text: Memo To White House On Climate Change Date: June 30, 2000

TO: John Podesta, White House Chief of Staff FROM: Center for International Environmental Law, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, National Environmental Trust, Natural Resources Defense Council, Ozone Action, Sierra Club, Union of Concerned Scientists, US Public Interest Research Group, World Wildlife Fund DATE: June 15, 2000 RE: U.S. negotiating position for the Sixth Conference of the Parties Thank you for the opportunity to share our initial thoughts with you regarding the U.S. negotiating position for COP6. We were pleased to...

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