HHS Brief With Cross-Motion For Summary Judgment

Intervenor Defendants' Cross-Motion For Summary Judgment

Styrene Industry Group's Motion For Summary Judgment

 

epa2012_1270


NACWA Statement Of Issues

Sierra Club Statement Of Issues

 

epa2012_1269


Absent EPA, Activists Target Scrapyards In Stormwater Enforcement Suits

Activists are targeting industrial facilities, particularly metal recyclers and scrapyards, in a series of citizen suits to require the facilities to seek permit coverage for stormwater discharges in what members of the groups say is the latest move in a decade-long campaign to force Clean Water Act (CWA) compliance in cases where EPA lacks the resources to do so. EPA has not "reached out or solicited for" assistance from environmentalists, says an attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), but...

Panel Chair Urges Judiciary Committee To Move Bill Curbing 'Sue And Settle'

Rep. James Lankford (R-OK), chair of the House oversight panel's technology subcommittee, is vowing to “push” lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee to move a bill aimed at curbing so-called settlements between EPA and environmentalists that result in binding rulemaking deadlines without input from regulated entities. “We want to be able to reform this process,” Lankford told Inside EPA following a June 28 subcommittee hearing. Lankford said he wants to “push the Judiciary Committee” to move on a bill,...

Lawmakers Revive Efforts To Prohibit EPA Regulation Of 'Nuisance' Dust

House and Senate lawmakers are reviving legislative efforts to address their fears that EPA is attempting to regulate "nuisance" dust, including possibly attaching a prohibition on regulating dust to the House's pending fiscal year 2013 spending bill and a recent failed attempt to offer the restriction as a rider to the Senate farm bill. The efforts come even as EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and others have repeatedly denied that the agency is attempting regulate nuisance dust as part of its...

EPA Seeks Vacatur To Revise Contested PM2.5 Air Permit Analysis Policy

EPA is asking a federal appeals court to vacate and remand parts of its contested rule setting "significant impact levels" (SILs) used to determine whether a proposed facility's fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions require a full-blown analysis of the project's air quality impacts to win a permit, with the agency vowing to amend the rule. However, the move is unlikely to quell activists' concerns that prompted their lawsuit over the rule, Sierra Club v. EPA , in the U.S. Court...

EPA Finalizes EPCRA Form Changes

EPA has finalized revisions to its Emergency Planning & Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) reporting requirements, narrowing the codes for how much of a hazardous material is stored on site and clarifying how chemical mixtures are reported despite opposition to the changes from some in industry. EPA made the changes to the EPCRA emergency and hazardous chemical inventory forms -- known as Tier I and II reporting forms -- to better aid state and local emergency planners by adding new data...

Superfund Report - 07/09/2012

Mon, 2012-07-09 00:00

EPA Lacks Data To Set Cancer Limit For Exhaust, Fracking Fluid Component

EPA says it lacks adequate data to assess the carcinogenicity of the three isomers of trimethylbenzene (TMB), a chemical mixture found in petroleum products and engine exhaust and also used in some hydraulic fracturing fluids, for which the agency has set toxicity values for preventing adverse neurological effects. The agency June 26 posted the assessment for the isomers 1,2,3-TMB, 1,2,4-TMB and 1,3,5-TMB, chemicals that EPA says are "produced during petroleum refining and production of aromatic hydrocarbons with nine carbons (i.e.,...

EPA Faces Competing Calls To Revise 'Diesel' Definition In Fracking Guide

EPA is facing competing calls from industry, utilities and environmentalists to amend its definition of what "diesel fuels" used in hydraulic fracturing injections are subject to Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) permit requirements, though some state officials are offering cautious praise for the agency's preferred definition. At a June 29 public meeting, the American Petroleum Institute (API) urged EPA to scrap the draft guidance, arguing it is not necessary and that some of the chemical abstract service (CAS) numbers that...

EAB Decision Could Raise Bar For Permitting Fracking Wastewater Wells

EPA's Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) has found that the agency's permit review of two wastewater disposal wells for a Pennsylvania-based hydraulic fracturing operation is inadequate to show that drinking water supplies would be protected, setting a high bar for permitting such wells in the gas-rich Marcellus Shale region. The board's June 28 finding in In Re: Bear Lake Properties, LLC is significant because disposal to underground injection wells is EPA and industry's preferred option for dealing with the massive volumes...

EPA Eyes New Air, Water Enforcement Powers To Inspect Fracking Sites

EPA is exploring use of new statutory authorities for conducting multimedia inspections of hydraulic fracturing operations, including powers seldom before used at drilling sites under the Clean Air Act's so-called "general duty" provision and the agency's Clean Water Act (CWA) regulations aimed at preventing oil spills at certain facilities. The new approach highlights officials' vows to use all existing authorities to oversee the booming fracking sector but have, in some cases, been hampered by legal limitations and uncertain science. Legal...

Correction

An article in the June 25 issue of Superfund Report , "Industry Fears Stricter 'Waste' Controls On Gases In EPA Incinerator Rule," incorrectly indicated that all non-contained gases are considered fuels, rather than wastes. Some non-contained gases used in manufacturing processes are regulated as emissions under the Clean Air Act but are not fuels.

California Moves To Review Rule Driving Flame Retardants' Use Nationwide

California state agencies are gearing up to assess forthcoming revisions to state furniture flammability standards that have led to increasing use of chemical flame retardants in furniture and other products nationwide. The Golden State's Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) and health hazard office expect to conduct a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review with other state agencies, aimed at reducing the use of flame- retardant chemicals in products, a state scientist told California lawmakers last month. The CEQA analysis...

EPA Plans New Rulemaking To Block Market Reentry Of PFCs In Carpet

EPA is launching a new rulemaking to restrict the use of so-called long-chain perfluorochemicals (PFCs) in carpets, recognizing growing concerns over the chemicals' toxicity and their widespread presence in the environment by preventing industry from re-introducing the voluntarily phased-out substances, sources say. EPA, in an April Action Initiation List (AIL) released June 22, says it plans to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking within the next 12 months to announce an upcoming significant new use rule (SNUR) for perfluoroalkyl sulfonates...

EPA Faces Call To Revise Chemical Testing To Assess Endocrine Effects

The Endocrine Society, a group of professional endocrinologists, is calling on EPA and other agencies to revise their chemical testing protocols to better account for substances' potential endocrine-disrupting effects, one of a series of new measures the group is pushing to address concerns that such risks are not adequately assessed. But in a June 26 press release announcing the release of a statement of principles, the group offered a new definition of the term "endocrine-disrupting chemicals" (EDCs) that omits referencing...

EPA Plans To Issue Endocrine Test Orders For Water Contaminants In FY2013

EPA is planning to issue in fiscal year 2013 its long-delayed list of drinking water contaminants it plans to test for potential endocrine-disrupting effects under its controversial Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP), according to its just-released management plan, which also provides hints of how the agency will determine whether some pesticides must undergo a costly second round of testing. EPA developed the "EDSP Comprehensive Management Plan," released June 28, in response to critical reports from the agency's Inspector General (IG)...

EPA Finalizes Changes To EPCRA Forms Despite Industry Objections

EPA has finalized revisions to its Emergency Planning & Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) reporting requirements, narrowing the codes for how much of a hazardous material is stored on site and clarifying how chemical mixtures are reported despite opposition to the changes from some in industry. EPA made the changes to the EPCRA emergency and hazardous chemical inventory forms -- known as Tier I and II reporting forms -- to better aid state and local emergency planners by adding new data...

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