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Guidance For Nonattainment Areas

Guidance For Multi-Jurisdictional Nonattainment And Maintenance Areas

 

epa2012_1534


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Insider -- August 14, 2012

EPA Weighs Fracking Oversight EPA is exploring its authorities to regulate hydraulic fracturing, saying in a previously undisclosed letter that it has a range of existing oversight powers under many environmental laws: EPA Works To Refine Existing Authorities To Oversee Fracking Operations EPA is working to refine its analysis of its existing legal authorities for regulating hydraulic fracturing and other aspects of natural gas development, a move that appears aimed at overcoming limits on the agency's current authorities that may...

Looking Beyond Drilling NSPS, Activists Eye Options For Limiting Methane

Environmental groups are weighing legal options for pushing EPA to target methane and other emissions from natural gas production, transmission and distribution sources, such as existing gas wells and oil drilling sites that they say are not adequately addressed in the agency's pending air rules for the oil and gas industry. "We're still exploring other options" for recommending additional controls for reducing methane, air toxics and other emissions from onshore oil and gas sources, one environmentalist says. Those options include...

EPA Likely To Require GHG Permits For Underground Coal Mines' Methane

EPA is likely to soon issue a determination that underground coal mines with major methane emissions must obtain greenhouse gas (GHG) permits over the objections of states and industry, though sources say the agency could defer the deadline for permit applications until it can collect more information on the mines and their emissions. Coal states first raised the issue with the agency's air office in a June 5 letter urging EPA to continue its policy detailed in the agency's GHG...

Utilities Urge States to Reject New WET Discharge Test, Citing Inaccuracy

Wastewater utilities are urging states to reject EPA's new tool for calculating the aggregate toxicity of multiple pollutants, charging that the software is as much as 16 percent less accurate than the decade-old computer program it replaces, and that it could lead to widespread adoption of the agency's controversial whole effluent toxicity (WET) tests. "It has the potential to increase the rate of false positives," Jamie Mitchell, of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), said at the group's...

Lawmaker Floats Water Fund Bill

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) has introduced a bill that would establish a trust fund for wastewater infrastructure projects funded through new taxes on beverages, pharmaceuticals and water disposal products, a change from a previous version of the legislation that would have also funded drinking water infrastructure. Blumenauer introduced H.R. 6249 Aug. 1 without cosponsors. The bill largely mirrors a similar bill he introduced in the 111th Congress aside from the elimination of drinking water projects. During the Association of Metropolitan...

Risk Policy Report - 08/14/2012

Tue, 2012-08-14 00:00

Activists, Industry At Odds Over California EPA's Cumulative Impacts Tool

Environmentalists and industry are sparring over how to revise a draft California EPA (Cal/EPA) screening tool that provides relative estimates of cumulative environmental impacts that communities face, as well as how far and fast to apply it, though the agency says it will not provide guidance for how to apply it. Known as the California Communities Environmental Health Screening Tool (CalEnviroScreen), it uses existing environmental, health, socioeconomic and demographic factors and indicators, and calculates relative impact "scores" for the state's...

Activists Seek To Counter Industry Attacks On EPA Vapor Intrusion Guide

Several dozen community activists are backing EPA's proposed use of a mathematical tool to predict vapor intrusion risk, seeking to counter industry criticism of the tool, and are also repeating activist calls for the agency to require near-continuous or continuous monitoring to protect against short-term exposure to toxic vapors in indoor air. The activists say in a July 26 email to EPA that they "are concerned that pressure from polluters, chemical producers, and property owners may weaken elements of EPA's...

GOP Lawmakers Seek To Speed NAS Report On Carcinogens Review

Top House appropriators are urging Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to expedite her department's pending contract with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to review portions of its controversial Report on Carcinogens (RoC) and to drop proposed conditions on the congressionally mandated review that the lawmakers say will undermine NAS' scientific independence. "It has come to our attention that HHS is taking steps that are being seen as delaying implementation of this review," Reps. Hal Rogers (R-KY),...

Environmentalists Sue EPA For Data About Dispersants Used After Oil Spills

Environmentalists have filed suit against EPA, seeking to force the agency to collect data on the appropriate quantity and location of use for chemical dispersant in oil spills, saying EPA has a duty under the Clean Water Act (CWA) to obtain the data to determine which dispersants are safe to use. The suit, Alaska Community Action on Toxics, et al., v. EPA , filed Aug. 6 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is the latest effort...

California's Draft Flame Retardant Test Expected To Reduce Chemicals' Use

California agencies are proposing to replace the state's strict "open flame" fire safety standard, a measure that critics say drives excess use of toxic flame-retardant chemicals nationwide, with a "smolder" standard that one expert says will reduce use of the chemicals. Arlene Blum, a chemistry professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who has long researched flame- retardant chemicals and advocated removing them from consumer products, told attendees during an Aug. 8 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences webinar that...

Appeals Court Urged To Rehear Ruling Upholding EPA GHG Finding, Rules

Opponents of EPA's greenhouse gas (GHG) rules are urging a federal appeals court to reconsider its ruling broadly upholding the regulations and the endangerment finding it is based on, saying that the court erred by departing from past legal precedent and that it should take up the request for rehearing as the issue is one of "exceptional importance." The Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) and the Coalition for Responsible Regulation -- a group of several major trade organizations such as the...

EPA Weighs Whether To Expand IRIS 'Evidence' Review To Cancer Issues

EPA staff are weighing whether their planned workshop to discuss "weight-of-evidence" frameworks for its Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessments will cover both cancer and non-cancer assessments -- though a top official says the focus is on adopting a new approach for non-cancer assessment, which currently lacks a classification system. Industry sources, however, have expressed concerns with the suggestion that EPA's cancer assessments do not need a review of their weight of evidence (WoE) procedures. They argue that both types...

EPA Draft Plan Aims To Better Tackle Species Issues In Pesticide Reviews

EPA is floating a draft plan that seeks to better address endangered species concerns and streamline consultation with other agencies during the pesticide registration review process, part of an agency effort to avoid potential litigation from activists over species assessments required in dozens of pending pesticide reviews. As part of the effort, the agency says it will engage with pesticide manufacturers earlier in the registration review process to determine accurate use rates and any potential conflicts with applications and species...

White House OIRA Requires Testing Of Agencies' Data Collection Forms

EPA and other agencies will have to test their data collection forms before releasing them to the public, according to a new requirement from the White House Office of Information & Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), which cites testing of EPA's fuel economy label as a good example of pre-release review. One source says the new requirement is "restating and reemphasizing" the original goal of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), which was designed to reduce paperwork burdens on regulated industries. Cass Sunstein,...

States Urge EPA To Use Range Of 'Attenuation Factors' For Vapor Intrusion

Several state regulators are criticizing EPA's vapor intrusion database as unsuitable for estimating "meaningful attenuation factors" -- mathematical tools used to estimate the risk that toxic vapors will rise into a building -- and are asking the agency to provide a range of acceptable attenuation factors rather than one "generic" factor. Providing a range of attenuation factors would give states more flexibility to make their own estimates based on site-specific factors, state officials say. Criticism of "EPA's Vapor Intrusion Database:...

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