Environmentalists Push EPA To Assess Releases In Vinyl Chloride Evaluation

Environmentalists are pressing EPA to formally deem vinyl chloride a “high priority” for TSCA risk evaluation and regulation, while renewing calls for the review to consider accidental releases -- such as the 2023 East Palestine, OH, chemical spill -- after the agency said it would decide whether to include such incidents in its analyses on a case-by-case basis. “We strongly support this designation and urge you to move forward as expeditiously as possible with evaluating the full array of risks...

Split D.C. Circuit Panel Denies Stay Of Second EPA Steel Sector Air Rule

A divided appellate panel has denied industry efforts to stay EPA’s air toxics rules for integrated iron and steel plants, a decision coming just weeks after the court recently denied a similar request from the sector to stay the agency’s taconite facility air rule and suggesting a likely similar outcome in a related suit over a rule for coke plants. But even if the industry appeals the latest stay denial to the Supreme Court, as many expect, prospects for a...

Industry Cites ‘Bright Line’ Sackett-Test Ruling In WOTUS Challenges

Industry groups challenging the Biden administration’s final “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule are pointing to a magistrate judge’s recent recommendation finding that the Supreme Court’s Sackett decision requires an adjacent wetland to have both a continuous surface connection and be indistinguishable to adjacent WOTUS. The recommendation from Magistrate Judge Shaniek Mills Maynard of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida is significant because it affirms critics’ arguments that EPA and the Army Corps of...

High Court Decision Looms On Whether To Hear Suit Over California Waiver

Supreme Court justices have delayed a decision until at least early November about whether to consider reversing an appellate ruling that upheld EPA’s federal preemption waiver for California’s vehicle greenhouse gas standards out to model year 2025, amid calls to intervene in the case from Republican-led states, industry groups and free-market advocates. The justices have already flagged the appeals for discussion at two prior closed-door conferences, most recently on Oct. 18, and observers are expecting that they will relist the...

EPA Seeks To Dismiss Ohio Plant’s Coal Ash Suit, Citing D.C. Circuit Ruling

EPA is urging a federal court to dismiss Gavin Power’s challenge to the agency’s decision denying its request to extend its deadline to cease receipt of coal ash waste and initiate closure, charging the plaintiff lacks standing as the denial does not impose legal consequences other than the new closure deadline it sets, as affirmed by an appellate ruling. EPA filed an Oct. 15 motion to dismiss the power utility’s challenge in Gavin Power, LLC v. EPA, et al. ,...

Court Rejects Airport’s Request To Consolidate PFAS Cleanup Appeals

Michigan’s landmark suit against a commercial airport over PFAS releases stemming from firefighting foam use is slated to move forward, without delay, to oral argument later this month after a federal appeals court rejected the airport’s attempt to consolidate two rulings over the venue for the litigation. Without comment, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit issued an order Oct. 17 denying the Gerald R. Ford International Airport Authority’s (GFIAA) motion to consolidate the two identically named cases,...

Chemical Industry Seeks Extended Comment Period On PFAS TRI Rule

The chemical industry is asking EPA to extend by 45 days the comment period for its proposed rule to significantly increase the number of PFAS required to be reported under the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), contending it needs more time to review potential major changes to the program and explore engaging downstream stakeholders. The American Chemistry Council (ACC), which represents the chemical manufacturing sector, in an Oct. 14 comment to EPA asks for a 45-day extension to the agency’s 60-day...

Final Dust-Lead Rule Sets Strict Hazard Level But Eases Abatement Target

EPA has published its judicially mandated final rule reworking Trump-era TSCA dust-lead restrictions for residential buildings, tightening the dust lead hazard standard (DLHS) to encompass “any reportable level of lead” despite industry objections but opting for less-stringent abatement standards than it floated in 2023. While the rule text was not available at press time, EPA said in an Oct. 24 press release that it is finalizing a Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) DLHS encompassing "any reportable level" of the neurotoxic...

Final Dust-Lead Rule Sets Strict Hazard Level But Eases Abatement Target

EPA has published its judicially mandated final rule reworking Trump-era TSCA dust-lead restrictions for residential buildings, tightening the dust lead hazard standard (DLHS) to encompass “any reportable level of lead” despite industry objections but opting for less-stringent abatement standards than it floated in 2023. While the rule text was not available at press time, EPA said in an Oct. 24 press release that it is finalizing a Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) DLHS encompassing "any reportable level" of the neurotoxic...

EPA Adds Senior TSCA Science Advisor, Targeting Existing Chemicals

EPA in July quietly added a second staff-level senior science advisor to the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) that implements TSCA with a portfolio focused on risk evaluations of existing chemicals, after she was “instrumental” in the toxics program’s decision to begin work on a rule for one such substance, the tire component 6PPD. Kathie Dionisio, who previously served as principal associate director for the EPA Chemical Safety for Sustainability (CSS) program within the Office of Research and...

EPA policy chief to return to Georgetown

EPA Office of Policy (OP) chief Vicki Arroyo announced Oct. 22 she will depart the agency Nov. 30 and return to Georgetown University, telling Inside EPA it has “been a productive and rewarding four years” at the agency. Arroyo is just the latest top Biden administration official to leave EPA. Over the past few weeks, Deputy Administrator Janet McCable and General Counsel Jeffrey Prieto have left the agency before the end of President Joe Biden’s term. In an Oct...

Harris Backs Bill Covering Conditions Linked To Veterans’ PFAS Exposure

Vice President Kamala Harris has endorsed bipartisan legislation requiring the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to cover treatment of veterans and family members for a variety of health conditions if exposed to PFAS at a military installation, in what appears to be the first new PFAS policy she has endorsed since joining the presidential race. Her support for the legislation is part of campaign materials Harris released this week aimed at showing how a Harris presidency would build opportunities for...

3M Cites 1st Circuit Decision To Back Federal Removal In PFAS Venue Cases

3M is pointing to a recent federal appellate decision that rejected Puerto Rico’s arguments that a dispute over pharmaceutical prices should be heard in a local court to bolster the company’s argument that cases brought by New Hampshire, Maine, Maryland and South Carolina regarding PFAS contamination should be heard in federal and not state court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit in Puerto Rico v. Express Scripts, Inc. -- which involved alleged insulin price inflation from...

Oil & Gas Group Readies Deregulatory Agenda But Warns Of GOP Overreach

A trade group representing oil and gas producers plans to seek modification or repeal of numerous Biden-era climate and other rules should GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump win the election, even as it is warning members that a potential Republican sweep might spur White House or congressional overreach that creates business risks. But much of the American Exploration and Production Council’s (AXPC) deregulatory agenda would struggle if Democratic nominee Kamala Harris wins the presidency, with the industry in that scenario...

Groups Clash Over CARB LCFS Rule Changes Amid Fuel Price-Spike Fears

A range of stakeholders is continuing to clash over the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) latest plan to strengthen its low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) program ahead of a pivotal board meeting, amid growing concerns that the changes could drive up the state’s already nation-high gasoline and diesel prices by roughly 50 cents or more. “The right thing for CARB to do is to postpone the LCFS hearing on the proposed amendments and immediately disclose the actual benefits and true costs...

Quote-Unquote: Courtside

What they’re saying. Both sides see glass half full in High Court denial of GHG stay : Reacting to the Supreme Court’s rejection of a stay for EPA’s power-plant greenhouse gas standards, while the case is argued on its merits in a lower court: Environmental. “Defenders of the rule should take heart. . . . It would be one thing if five justices said, ‘We think we have grave concerns about the whole rule’s merits but we don’t think...

Inside EPA - 10/25/2024

Wed, 2024-10-23 16:24

EPA Weighs Novel Risk Methods For TSCA Chemical Reviews

Staff at EPA’s TSCA office are fielding proposals from both within and outside the agency that could change how they assess risks from toxic substances, including changes both to the universe of chemical exposures those assessments consider, and how they calculate non-cancer health risk. Last week, Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) officials sought input from the EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) on a preliminary screening approach that the agency could use to add chemical “co-exposures” to its risk evaluations --...

As EPA Preps Rules, Environmentalists Seek To Halve Landfills’ Methane

As EPA is developing updated Clean Air Act methane standards for new and existing municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills, environmentalists are floating a new report that says the agency can require facilities to cut emissions by more than half by 2050 by making “common-sense” updates to the standards. Recommended requirements in the Oct. 22 report from Industrious Labs, which advocates for decarbonizing the industrial sector, include improvements in gas collection systems and landfill cover requirements. For example, the report recommends...

Facing ‘Stretched’ RCRA Funding, State Officials Seek Alternate Sources

State and federal officials say funding and resources for EPA’s Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous waste management program have failed to keep pace with increasing demands, placing an ever-growing burden on state programs and their leaders to seek other sources of money. Shortfalls in federal funding have forced officials to “get creative” in their approaches to funding, Tom Johnson, government relations director for Minnesota’s Pollution Control Agency, said during an Oct. 17 roundtable dedicated to RCRA funding at...

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