REFORMULATED GAS PRICE BATTLE SPAWNS ENERGY POLICY, PATENT DISPUTE

The fight over the cost of EPA-mandated reformulated gasoline (RFG) in the Midwest this week boiled down to increasing finger-pointing between Republicans and Democrats over the articulation of a national energy policy, while a group of House lawmakers moved to ease the prices by proposing to alter the law governing a patent on blending RFG. But many observers point out that gas prices in the Midwest have started to come down from their high mark of well over $2 a...

TANK OFFICE NEEDS MILLIONS MORE TO ENSURE UPGRADE COMPLIANCE

EPA's Office of Underground Storage Tanks (OUST) says Congress must double resources towards the cleanup program to ensure the tanks meet a set of 1988 rules requiring tank owners to upgrade their systems to prevent groundwater contamination. The agency needs as high as an extra $93 million and $70 million per year for the next several years to meet that goal, EPA argues. But congressional staff say low spending caps in Congress' fiscal year 2001 spending bills makes it nearly...

ACTIVISTS, UNIONS DRAFT RIGHT-TO-KNOW BILL ON TRADE PACT EFFECTS

A coalition of labor, environmental, and human rights organizations is crafting new legislation aimed at providing the public with more and better information on the effects of U.S. trade agreements, sources close to the issue say. One environmentalist says the coalition hopes to identify a congressional sponsor to introduce the legislation this year as a policy marker for the next Congress. The legislation could act as the centerpiece of the groups' efforts to ensure institutions such as the World Trade...

HOUSE, SENATE MOVE TO EASE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORTING BURDEN, CONFUSION

New, bipartisan legislation in the House and Senate aims to simplify duplicative and confusing environmental reporting requirements for businesses by directing EPA to develop and implement a "one-stop" reporting system. The one-stop system will simplify industry reporting to EPA by creating a central receiving office for all required reports from each EPA office; an optional electronic reporting system; an agency-wide data standards to be used by all offices; and a mechanism to provide assistance to businesses in understanding required reporting...

EPA SAYS WASTE SITE RESTRICTIONS FAILING TO PROTECT PUBLIC HEALTH

EPA officials admit that over the next 50 years, half the restrictions put in place at hazardous waste sites to prevent exposure to contamination will fail, prompting headquarters to draft guidance to regions and states on selecting and monitoring institutional controls. But regional officials say they are reluctant to implement the new guidance anyhow, and say many regional officials have not implemented previous institutional control (IC) policies handed down from EPA headquarters. Waste chief Tim Fields told a conference on...

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 RECYCLING MEETING TO FOCUS ON 'REASONABLE CARE' STANDARD

EPA officials will meet with stakeholders next month to determine whether the scrap recycling industry needs special guidance for ensuring businesses are in compliance under the Superfund statute and therefore, exempt from hazardous waste liability. The meeting will focus on what is necessary for a recycler to meet the agency's "reasonable care" compliance standards under the exemption, an issue of key importance to recyclers. The issue of reasonable care is important because that is the standard for determining whether recyclers...

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

Assistant Administrator for the Office of Solid Waste & Emergency Response (OSWER) Tim Fields last week appointed Deputy Assistant Administrator Cliff Rothenstein as head of OSWER's Office of Underground Storage Tanks (OUST). Acting OUST Director Sammy Ng resumes his post as Director of OUST's Policy & Standards Division. OSWER sources say Rothenstein wanted the chance to run an EPA program office. He was "given an opportunity to manage a national program so he decided to take it," one source says...

DEMOCRATS THWART EFFORTS TO STRENGTHEN CLIMATE CHANGE RESTRICTIONS

House Democrats and the Clinton administration appear to have succeeded in beating back an effort by Rep. Joseph Knollenberg (R-MI) to strengthen legislative language in a host of spending bills that would have curtailed the administration's activities on climate change. In fact, the resulting anti-Kyoto Protocol language specifically says that administration activities on climate change allowed under U.S. law are permitted, even if they are related to the Kyoto Protocol. Knollenberg, a vocal critic of Clinton administration support for the...

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: EPA CAN LEVY PENALTIES FOR TANK LEAKS AGAINST DOD

Federal law clearly gives EPA the authority to levy penalties against the Defense Department (DOD) for underground storage tank (UST) violations of the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA), the Justice Department (DOJ) says in a long-awaited opinion issued earlier this month. DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion June 14, responding to a dispute over whether EPA has authority to issue fines and penalties against DOD. "A straightforward reading of RCRA's statutory text and the relevant legislative history...

EPA AVOIDS TOXICITY TEST FLAWS IN NEW WASTE DISPOSAL STANDARD

EPA in the coming weeks will issue revised land disposal standards for aluminum production waste that will not tackle the sticky issue of whether or not the agency will begin to use new methods for determining the toxicity of hazardous waste prior to land disposal. That omission leaves industry still clamoring for a change to the existing test, sources say. How the new rule addresses the conventional test is "not going to be as important as some folks hoped it...

GAO STUDY SAYS IMPAIRED WATERS RULE EXCLUDES ADEQUATE COST DATA

A new General Accounting Office (GAO) study is raising questions about EPA's cost and benefit analyses prepared for its embattled impaired water rules, suggesting that the agency is not in compliance with the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA). In the report, released June 21, GAO investigators say that EPA cannot conclude with "reasonable assurance" that the annual costs of the proposed revisions "would not exceed the $100 million threshold set forth in [UMRA]." UMRA calls for an analysis of costs,...

FEDERAL COURT SAYS A WASTE IS 'DISCARDED' IF USED IN SHAM RECYCLING

A federal circuit court June 27 upheld an EPA decision subjecting petrochemical refining materials to Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) waste requirements even though the material may be recycled, because the agency's move is intended to prevent so-called sham recycling. Industry had sought to strike the rule because federal courts have determined that recycled materials are not subject to such requirements. But the court decided that sham recycling clearly precludes recycling, and the material is therefore subject to regulation...

FEDERAL COURT TO DECIDE IF TOXIC RELEASE INVENTORY APPLIES TO MINING

A federal court will decide whether EPA violated key federal public participation rules when the agency made mining activities subject to reporting requirements under the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) -- a key public right-to-know tool heralded by the agency and the environmental community. The case could force EPA to go back and reformulate its decision to make mining operations subject to TRI requirements, thereby giving the industry a chance to significantly modify or kill outright the proposal during the public...

DTSC's Lowry Criticizes Military Base Cleanup, Future Use Plans

But state stymies redevelopment, consultant says DTSC's Lowry Criticizes Military Base Cleanup, Future Use Plans Toxics department chief Ed Lowry said last week that he's "troubled" by an emerging trend by the military to inadequately clean up former bases, relying in many cases on unclear future uses of the sites. Speaking before a Senate select committee, Lowry also reiterated his belief that the military should retain cleanup responsibility over transferred land indefinitely. "The military would like to transfer land and...

Industry Fears EPA Will Use Water Board Mercury Report As New TMDL

Industry Fears EPA Will Use Water Board Mercury Report As New TMDL The San Francisco regional water board last week took a significant step toward addressing the presence of mercury in the San Francisco Bay by transmitting to U.S. EPA a total maximum daily load (TMDL) resolution and report. The resolution does not include language suggested by dischargers urging EPA Region IX to reject adopting the report as a TMDL until the state produces an implementation plan. An industry source...

ARB Adopts Landmark Paint 'Reactivity' Reg Despite EPA Concerns

ARB Adopts Landmark Paint 'Reactivity' Reg Despite EPA Concerns The air board has adopted a landmark spray paint regulation that throws out mass-weight volatile organic compound (VOC) emission limits and replaces them with more complex "reactivity" limits for chemicals with varying amounts of ozone-forming VOCs. The change is opposed by two major environmental groups and is being questioned by U.S. EPA officials, who say there is insufficient science to prove the reactivity limits will reduce pollution, and who warn that...

Text: EPA Questions New ARB 'Reactivity' Reg For Spray Paints

Text: EPA Questions New ARB 'Reactivity' Reg For Spray Paints June 21, 2000 Michael Kenny Executive Officer California Air Resources Board 2020 L Street Sacramento, CA 95814-2815 Dear Mr. Kenny: I understand that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has expended considerable resources developing a VOC reactivity component for the aerosol coating portion of California's consumer products program. While CARB's efforts have significantly advanced the discussion about VOC reactivity approaches, we have both science and enforcement related concerns with the...

CUPAs Irked By Cal/EPA, DTSC Charges Of Inadequate Enforcement

CUPAs Irked By Cal/EPA, DTSC Charges Of Inadequate Enforcement Local officials in charge of hazardous materials management programs continue to refute charges of inadequate enforcement, but the criticism is fostering discord between local agencies and Cal/EPA, as they consider ways to improve the program. Cal/EPA may push the matter by implementing a uniform enforcement policy for certified unified program agencies (CUPAs). CUPA officials are striving to make their enforcement program work uniformly statewide; problems are connected to the newness of...

Split Panel Approves Bill Giving ARB New Administrative Penal Authority

Split Panel Approves Bill Giving ARB New Administrative Penal Authority The Assembly Natural Resources Committee June 26 by a bipartisan 7-4 vote approved a bill to give the Air Resources Board new powerful authority to penalize violators of air pollution laws, up to $200,000, as an alternative to filing civil lawsuits. The bill, SB 2130 (Sen. Byron Sher, D-Palo Alto), was opposed by several industry groups but supported by the auto industry, which for the past few months has met...

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