Libby Documents Could Impact Other Asbestos Cleanups, Activists Say

Environmentalists in Pennsylvania are demanding that EPA release documents explaining why it ruled out the use of certain cleanup technologies at the Libby, MT, asbestos site, saying they are concerned the agency is not adequately considering alternatives to leaving asbestos contamination in place at sites around the country. The Pennsylvania groups -- Citizens for a Better Ambler and the BoRit Community Advisory Group -- are primarily concerned with how EPA is handling asbestos contamination at the BoRit Asbestos Superfund Site...

Key Players Question EPA's Ability To Lead New Sustainability Approach

As EPA takes steps toward building an operational framework for incorporating sustainability measures across the agency, a landmark effort that Administrator Lisa Jackson calls the "new approach" to environmental issues, key former agency officials and other observers are questioning the agency's ability to lead sustainability efforts. While Jackson recently announced the creation of a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel to advise the agency on how it can replace its current risk-based approach with a more holistic, sustainability approach, some...

Pressure Mounts For EPA To Weigh Regulatory Impacts Of Risk Estimates

EPA is facing increasing pressure to consider the regulatory impacts of its risk estimates given stakeholder concern that several prominent draft estimates that the agency is striving to advance in 2011 will drive expensive regulations that are impractical to implement as the safety estimates sometimes fall below naturally occurring levels. Several sources argue that the problem could be solved if the agency's Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program, its premiere hazard assessment program, were required to consider the risk management...

States Face Budget, New Fuels Challenges To Cleaning Up Leaking Tanks

States are facing a host of challenges in reducing a backlog of more than 96,000 leaking underground storage tanks (LUSTs), including staff and budget cuts, a growing number of entities responsible for leaks and the possibility that newly approved ethanol fuel blends could increase the number of leaks, state and industry sources say. EPA is poised to release this spring the results of a years-long review of LUST cleanups, "The National LUST Cleanup Backlog: A Study Of Opportunities," which, according...

Alternative Measures Expected To Bolster Scaled-Back EPA Coal Ash Rule

Even while EPA continues to review thousands of comments on its first-time plan to regulate coal ash as a waste, many expect the agency to retreat from strictly regulating the power-generation byproduct as "hazardous" and fall back on a less-stringent non-hazardous approach bolstered with additional environmental controls and reporting measures. While several sources say they expect the agency to eventually opt for a less-strict approach regulating the waste under subtitle D of the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA), EPA...

California Proposes Stricter Drinking Water Goal For Perchlorate

California's health hazard office is proposing a tighter new drinking water public health goal (PHG) for the controversial rocket fuel ingredient perchlorate, of 1 part per billion (ppb), stricter than the state's existing standard of 6 ppb, which could lead to stricter cleanup standards at contaminated sites. The Golden State's Jan. 7 announcement comes a day after Senate Environment & Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) announced that she intends to keep pushing for a federal drinking water standard...

SAB Urges Support For EPA PAH Assessment Method Despite Criticisms

EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB) is amending draft advice on assessing cancer risks from whole mixtures of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in order to ensure that its criticism of EPA's proposed methodology doesn't hinder the agency's ability to use the methodology to set regulatory limits for the ubiquitous chemicals. The SAB panel says in a recent draft report that the relative potency factor (RPF) approach the agency is proposing in order to calculate PAH risk in whole mixtures, such as...

Rebuffing Industry, EPA Adopts New Ratios For Estimating Dioxins' Risks

Backed by scientific experts, EPA has adopted new ratios, known as toxicity equivalence factors (TEFs), for quantifying the risks and setting cleanup levels for scores of dioxins and dioxin-like compounds, rebuffing long-standing industry criticisms that the use of TEFs is unscientific and can overstate risk. EPA Jan. 6 unveiled a final document, "Recommended Toxicity Equivalence Factors (TEFs) for Human Health Risk Assessments of 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin and Dioxin-Like Compounds [TCDD]," that contains the new values. Relevant documents are available on InsideEPA.com. The...

Activists Point To CWA Suit As Support For Hazardous Coal Ash Designation

Environmental groups are pointing to Maryland's recent announcement of its intent to sue a major power company under the Clean Water Act (CWA) over the company's coal ash disposal operations in Charles and Montgomery counties to bolster their push for stringent regulation of coal combustion residuals under the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA). Maryland is seeking an injunction and civil penalties from Mirant Mid-Atlantic, LLC, and its subsidiary Mirant Maryland Ash Management, LLC, for unauthorized discharges of pollutants such...

Superfund Report - 01/10/2011

Mon, 2011-01-10 00:00

New EPA Risk Estimate Expected To Drive Stricter Standards For Fluoride

EPA is proposing to strengthen its estimates of the health risks posed by the mineral fluoride, which has long been added to public drinking water systems for its dental hygiene benefits, a move that is expected to drive more stringent regulatory standards for the substance in some drinking water systems and in pesticides that contain the substance. The agency Jan. 7 unveiled a new risk analysis that recommends setting the reference dose (RfD), or estimated amount of fluoride below which...

Jackson Reaches Out To Key GOP Lawmaker On Appropriations Riders

Updated Story EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is wasting no time reaching out to newly empowered House Republicans, meeting with a key GOP lawmaker to discuss a series of appropriations riders addressing agency policies on greenhouse gas (GHG) controls, ozone standards, clean water requirements and pesticide labels. In a meeting sought by the administrator, Jackson met Jan. 7 with Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-OH), a member of the Appropriations Committee who in the last Congress offered several failed amendments...

Texas Digs In Its Heels

Texas is firing back at EPA in its effort to stay the agency's greenhouse gas (GHG) rules in the state, filing a brief arguing that federal officials are ignoring the harms to the state's authority that would come from imposition of the GHG requirements. “EPA’s disregard for constitutional federalism inflicts irreparable harm on Texas, and is not some theoretical or philosophical problem the agency may disparage,” the state tells the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit...

Energy Committee Unveils Subcommittee Rosters

Fred Upton (R-MI), chairman of the House Energy & Commerce (E&C) Committee, has unveiled the Republican members of his committee's panels, which likely will become key battlegrounds for hearings over upcoming EPA regulations. The newly reorganized Subcommittee on Energy & Power, chaired by Rep. Ed Whitfield (KY), will have jurisdiction over energy and air quality issues, including the Clean Air Act climate regulations being implemented by EPA. GOP members of the subcommittee include Vice Chair John Sullivan (OK), John Shimkus...

NEC's New Environmental Economist

The White House has tapped Nathaniel Keohane, chief economist at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), as the new environmental economist at the National Economic Council (NEC), bringing in a long-time proponent of the economic benefits of environmental rules just as Republicans begin to target the effects of EPA's rules. Keohane began work at the NEC earlier this week, replacing former NEC special adviser Joe Aldy, who according to press reports returned to his former post as assistant professor of public...

EPA May Revive Use Of ‘Heat Input’ To Allocate Air Transport Rule Credits

EPA is considering reversing course on its method for allocating emission credits under a proposed cap-and-trade air rule for utilities and is floating alternative plans to allocate credits based on the amount of “heat input” or fuel burned, rather than emissions levels -- an approach that could address industry fears that the agency’s current approach could disadvantage coal-fired plants that have already installed controls. How EPA calculates emission allowances is central to its proposed Clean Air Transport Rule (CATR), which...

Rebuffing Industry, EPA Adopts New Ratios For Estimating Dioxins’ Risks

Backed by scientific experts, EPA has adopted new ratios, known as toxicity equivalence factors (TEFs), for quantifying the risks and setting cleanup levels for scores of dioxins and dioxin-like compounds, rebuffing long-standing industry criticisms that the use of TEFs is unscientific and can overstate risk. EPA Jan. 6 unveiled a final document , “Recommended Toxicity Equivalence Factors (TEFs) for Human Health Risk Assessments of 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin and Dioxin-Like Compounds [TCDD],” that contains the new values. The TEFs are essentially ratios comparing...

California Proposes Stricter Drinking Water Goal For Rocket Fuel Chemical Perchlorate

California’s health hazard office is proposing a tighter new drinking water public health goal (PHG) for the controversial rocket fuel ingredient perchlorate, of 1 part per billion (ppb), stricter than the state’s existing standard of 6 ppb, which could lead to stricter cleanup standards at contaminated sites. The Golden State’s Jan. 7 announcement comes a day after Senate Environment & Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) announced that she intends to keep pushing for a federal drinking water standard...

http://InsideEpa.com/sites/insideepa.com/documents/jan2011/epa2011_0053.pdf


http://InsideEpa.com/sites/insideepa.com/documents/jan2011/epa2011_0052.pdf


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