EPA GUIDANCE WILL DIRECT SITE MANAGERS ON RISK INFORMATION

EPA officials are planning to issue guidance for Superfund site managers that is intended to show exactly where and how to include risk assessment information into records of decision (RODs), agency sources say. The guidance, which is still in draft form, comes in response to concerns of many EPA officials that some RODs are unclear because remedial project managers (RPMs) clutter them with unnecessary risk assessment information, an agency source says. The guidance, expected to be issued early in 1999,...

EPA TO ISSUE GUIDANCE ON STRENGTHENING EMERGENCY RESPONSE PROGRAMS

EPA officials are planning to issue new guidance to its regions early next year that will help them strengthen their emergency response teams, agency sources say. The guidance comes in response to concerns from on-scene coordinators (OSCs) and removal managers, who for more than a year have petitioned for studies of the removal program and the responsibilities of OSCs, as well as consistency among regions, sources say. The sources say that some OSCs and removal managers fear some regional readiness...

EPA PREPARING GUIDANCE ON PLANNED DOUBLING OF NEW NPL LISTINGS

EPA officials are set to release this month a guidance document that will address agency plans to more than double the number of sites that are listed on the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) each year, EPA sources say. This means that as many as 50 sites are likely to be listed per year, up from the current tally of about 20 sites per year. The document will be released to regional Superfund officials, sources say. After five years of...

DEMOCRATS TAKE AIM AT BROWNFIELDS, DREDGING RIDERS IN FINAL SPENDING BILL

Democrats on Capitol Hill are preparing efforts to chip away at environmental riders added to EPA's funding bill by Republicans, including provisions that could affect EPA's brownfields programs and cleanups that include underwater dredging. The preparations come as Congress will likely begin conference proceedings on the bills -- the House and Senate have both passed their separate versions -- soon after House members return next week. Meanwhile, the Office of Management & Budget (OMB) is likely to decide soon what...

EPA PREPARES NATIONAL SUPERFUND ENFORCEMENT SWEEP TO GUARANTEE CLEANUPS

EPA is planning to launch a major national enforcement initiative this fall to ensure that responsible parties are fulfilling all of their cleanup obligations at Superfund sites and penalize those who are not meeting the terms of their cleanup agreements, agency officials say. The initiative is also designed to target sites that present "environmental justice" concerns, according to EPA officials who say the agency's regional offices will be asked to pay particular attention to Superfund cleanups in minority or low-income...

Text: EPA List of Sites Expected to Undergo Fund-Lead Response Actions

Superfund Site Planning Data EPA has compiled this list of 78 of 332 sites which available planning data indicates the Agency may perform or finance response actions. The list represents both CERCLIS and regionally supplied data as of July 20, 1998. This list is subject to change and does not represent any findings by EPA nor does it represent final Agency action. The information provided herein is provided solely to assist the House Committee on Commerce in its deliberations and...

Text: EPA Letter to Bliley on Enforcement Cases

July 31, 1998 The Honorable Thomas J. Bliley, Jr. Chairman Committee on Commerce U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515 Dear Mr. Chairman: This letter further responds to your letter of June 18, 1998, and follows a letter from Acting Assistant Administrator Tim Fields to you dated July 9, 1998. You requested additional information pertaining to the candidate sites for the Administration's request for an additional appropriation in FY99. This further information pertains to enforcement matters regarding these sites. Seventy-eight...

EPA ISOLATES LIST OF 78 SITES NEEDING TRUST FUND CLEANUP DOLLARS

EPA has compiled a confidential list of Superfund sites where the agency is likely to end up financing the majority of cleanup activities instead of having private parties fund the remediation. EPA delivered the list of 78 sites to Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-VA) late in July as part of a continuing bid to persuade Congress to grant EPA a $650 million boost in Superfund appropriations in fiscal year 1999. ( A letter detailing the information provided by EPA...

Superfund Report - 09/02/1998

Wed, 1998-09-02 00:00

Water Policy Report - 09/02/1998

Wed, 1998-09-02 00:00

ACTIVISTS CHARGE CONSTRUCTION OF PLANT WOULD VIOLATE DISABILITY ACT

Environmental justice activists have stepped up their effort to block Louisiana from issuing a controversial Clean Air Act construction permit to Shintech, Inc. by filing a lawsuit claiming that such a move would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. The suit maintains that asthmatics living in close proximity to the planned facility are "disabled," and are thus entitled to special protection under the ADA. Industry sources roundly agree that the suit appears outlandish at first glance, but some concede that...

INDUSTRY GROUP DRAFTS INCENTIVES LIST TO SPUR 'BEYOND COMPLIANCE'

A group of major U.S. businesses interested in alternatives to command-and-control regulations is designing a "menu" of incentives that they believe will help regulators encourage companies to go "beyond compliance" with environmental laws, a potentially significant addition to the growing range of proposals for reinventing environmental regulations. The effort has met with some skepticism from environmentalists, who say industry is simply looking for new breaks from regulations. But industry sources say the list is still a work in progress, and...

CITIZENS CALL ON EPA TO CRACK DOWN ON TOXIC EMISSIONS FROM ASPHALT PLANTS

A multi-state network of citizen activists has begun pressing EPA to sharply limit toxic air emissions from asphalt plants, fearing that these plants are dangerously under-regulated and threaten public health when sited in residential neighborhoods. In recent years, activists have been waging a battle at the state level to block the construction of new asphalt plants, but citizens are now asking EPA to decide whether these plants should be tightly regulated because of their size and the threat they pose...

EPA LIKELY TO DEFER BOLD ACTION TO REDUCE ARSENIC IN DRINKING WATER

EPA is likely to defer setting a stringent rule to reduce the presence of arsenic in drinking water until a number of key long-term studies are completed and various scientific issues resolved, agency sources say. In the interim, EPA sources say the agency is likely to establish a modest standard in 2001 that relies heavily on cost considerations and recognizes that there is no unanimity of opinion on the extent to which arsenic poses a threat to public health. A...

BOILER OWNERS PRESS WHITE HOUSE TO PARE BACK EPA'S NOx STRATEGY

A multi-industry coalition is calling on the Office of Management & Budget (OMB) to moderate EPA's plan to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides throughout the East and provide states with more flexibility in setting standards for non-utility boilers. Industry officials at a meeting with OMB last week stressed among other things that EPA should modify its plan so that boiler owners are not uniformly required to continuously monitor their NOx emissions, a requirement that could significantly drive up the cost...

STATES MAY LOSE FUNDING FOR FAILURE TO SUBMIT WATER QUALITY REPORTS

EPA officials are warning states that they could lose access to some federal funding if they fail to submit Clean Water Act reports that characterize state water quality conditions, agency sources say. EPA sources say the agency is concerned that a whistleblower group will soon take legal action to compel the agency to sanction states that have not complied with this key reporting requirement. States are required under Section 305(b) of the Clean Water Act to submit bi-annual reports to...

Text: EPA List of Sites Expected to Undergo Fund-Lead Response Actions

Superfund Site Planning Data EPA has compiled this list of 78 of 332 sites which available planning data indicates the Agency may perform or finance response actions. The list represents both CERCLIS and regionally supplied data as of July 20, 1998. This list is subject to change and does not represent any findings by EPA nor does it represent final Agency action. The information provided herein is provided solely to assist the House Committee on Commerce in its deliberations and...

Text: EPA Response to Bliley Superfund Questions

July 31, 1998 The Honorable Thomas J. Bliley, Jr. Chairman Committee on Commerce U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515 Dear Mr. Chairman: This letter further responds to your letter of June 18, 1998, and follows a letter from Acting Assistant Administrator Tim Fields to you dated July 9, 1998. You requested additional information pertaining to the candidate sites for the Administration's request for an additional appropriation in FY99. This further information pertains to enforcement matters regarding these sites. Seventy-eight...

EPA ISOLATES LIST OF SITES NEEDING TRUST FUND CLEANUP DOLLARS

EPA has identified a finite list of Superfund sites where the agency is likely to end up financing the majority of cleanup activities instead of having private parties fund the remediation. EPA delivered the list of 78 sites to Commerce Committee Chairman Bliley (R-VA) late last month as part of a continuing bid to persuade Congress to grant EPA a $650 million boost in Superfund appropriations in fiscal year 1999. A letter detailing the information provided by EPA and the...

STATES LAUNCH EFFORT TO CRAFT INCENTIVES FOR EARLY GHG REDUCTIONS

State environmental officials are launching a new initiative to develop a policy framework that states can use to "credit" companies that voluntarily and expeditiously reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, members of the Environmental Council of the States announced last week. Speaking to reporters after a broadly attended two-day climate change meeting in Wisconsin, the ECOS officials said while states have different opinions on the science and politics surrounding the climate debate, they all agree that there are "common sense" steps...

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