Toxics

EPA efforts to expand toxic chemical regulations and reform its risk-assessment process, as well as the debate over revising the Toxic Substances Control Act, are just some of the topics featured in our Toxics section.

Topic Subtitle
EPA efforts to expand toxic chemical regulations and reform its risk-assessment process, as well as the debate over revising the Toxic Substances Control Act, are just some of the topics featured in our Toxics section.

EPA Backs Industry Call To Revise Coal Ash Rule’s Approach To Waste Reuse

EPA is proposing to rework how its Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) coal ash rule handles reuse of the waste, backing industry requests to scrap the current numeric approach and imposing instead a mandate to “control releases” that environmentalists say amounts to an exemption from regulation for structural fills and other activites. The agency on July 30 released a new RCRA proposal largely focused on changing how the rule treats uncontained “piles” of ash being prepared for either reuse...

Rule


Advisers Query EPA’s Narrow TSCA Assessment Of 1,4-Dioxane’s Risks

EPA science advisers are urging the agency to do a better job of explaining its decision to focus only on occupational exposures to the solvent 1,4-dioxane in its second draft risk evaluation under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), with some advisers questioning the agency’s decision to exclude general population exposures. In general, members of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) said July 29 that the draft 1,4-dioxane assessment is better organized than the agency’s first risk evaluation,...

EDF Says EPA’s Proposed Priority Chemicals List Violates TSCA Criteria

Correction Appended Environmentalists are charging that the list of 20 existing chemicals that EPA has proposed as high priority candidates for the next round of assessments -- and possible regulation -- marks a “serious statutory violation” because the agency is not giving “sufficient preference” to criteria detailed in the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Signaling a new litigation front over EPA’s implementation of the law, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) writes in its June 19 comments , posted...

Pallone warns EPA over tire crumb study

A top Democrat is pushing back against statements EPA and other federal agencies make in a just-released report that suggest human exposure to chemical and other constituents in recycled tire crumb used on playing fields is low, even though the agencies have only examined constituents in the material and have not yet considered potential human exposures. House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ), who requested the EPA-led investigation into tire crumb, says in a July 25 statement...

Following Criticism, New Pentagon Chief Seeks To Reset PFAS Response

Newly confirmed Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s creation of a high-level task force to take a “proactive stance” on per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) contamination signals the Pentagon’s new chief is seeking to take control of an issue for which DOD has drawn strong criticisms for months and prompted Congress to advance legislation to address it. On the same day he was confirmed to lead DOD, Esper signed a memo to the military services’ secretaries and high-level DOD officials to establish a...

Esper Memo

Request To IG


EPA Agrees To Extension For TSCA Risk Evaluations, Delays OPPT Reform

Following criticism that EPA was unnecessarily rushing to complete the first 10 risk evaluations required by the revised toxics law by the end of the year, the agency’s toxics chief says officials will use the additional six months the law allows to complete the studies but they are still aiming to complete all peer reviews by the December 2019 deadline. In addition to delaying the risk evaluations, the agency has also put on hold a pending plan to reorganize the...

EPA Pledges ‘Partnerships’ With GOP-Aligned Environmental Group

EPA’s newly inked agreement with the conservative American Conservation Coalition (ACC) is an unusual if not unique move to set up a working relationship with a political advocacy group that touts itself as an alternative to environmentalists that “have disenfranchised those who are right-of-center,” though EPA is downplaying the agreement as nonbinding. The July 24 memorandum of understanding (MOU) includes a pledge to “encourage the establishment of regional level partnerships among ACC chapters and EPA's 10 Regional Offices, and EPA...

House Eyes Asbestos Ban But Few Query Chlorine Sector’s PFAS Alternative

House Democrats’ bill to ban uses of asbestos appears to be advancing after state officials opened the door to a longer phase-out period for chlorine producers, but few involved in talks on the bill are discussing prospects that implementing any ban will eventually drive the sector to use an alternate technology that uses perflourinated chemicals. As such, the asbestos bill, H.R. 1603, could eventually encourage the chlor-alkali industry, one of the few -- and the largest -- remaining domestic users...

Environmentalists Warn EPA Against Using Texas’ Weaker EtO Risk Limit

Environmental groups are warning EPA against using Texas’ proposed assessment of the health risks of ethylene oxide (EtO), which is much weaker than the agency’s, when officials write new air toxics rules for sectors emitting the carcinogenic pollutant, saying that to do so would violate legal requirements that the agency use “best available science.” The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s (TCEQ) proposed document “could not possibly qualify as adequate science, much less the best available science,” environmentalists said in a...

Democrat Hints At Industry’s Criminal Liability On PFAS But Seeks Cleanup

Rep. Harley Rouda (D-CA), chairman of the House oversight environment panel, is suggesting that manufacturers of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) may be criminally liable for intentionally hiding toxicity findings of their chemicals while continuing to produce products with them and discharge the substances. But Rouda appeared to stop short of calling for prosecution, instead renewing his calls that the companies pay $2 billion in fees to address the resulting contamination. “3M, DuPont and other industrial users knew that PFAS...

Complicating Effort, IRIS Arsenic Analysis To Include Dual Risk Approaches

In a change from past plans, EPA’s assessment of the human health risks of exposure to inorganic arsenic will contain both novel estimates for non-cancer risk endpoints recommended by science advisors as well as traditional single-point reference values sought by the agency’s program offices, perhaps complicating the long-running effort to update EPA’s 1991 assessment. Allen Davis, co-chemical manager for the Integrated Risk Information System’s arsenic assessment, said during a July 16 meeting of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel...

EPA Urged To Block DOD’s Thermal Disposal Of Explosives Containing PFAS

Local citizen groups are petitioning EPA Region 4 to block the U.S. military from using thermal methods for disposing of explosives and other materials containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) at a Tennessee Army ammunition plant, putting new pressure on the military as it seeks to dispose of items containing the chemicals. In a July 16 letter to EPA Region 4 Administrator Mary Walker, two citizen groups -- Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger (CSWAB) and Volunteers for Environmental Health...

Calls Grow To Strengthen Oversight Of Refiners’ Hydrogen Fluoride

Federal and local officials are stepping up calls for the Trump administration to strengthen oversight of the use and storage of hydrogen fluoride (HF) by dozens of refiners in the wake of a series of industrial incidents at several facilities across the country that have raised safety concerns for employees and adjacent communities. Their calls, which echo recent formal requests from the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) for EPA to assess the adequacy of refiners’ safety plans, put new pressure on...

Great Lakes groups press candidates on water agenda

A coalition of more than 150 environmental groups is urging all of the 2020 presidential candidates to commit to increased funding for Great Lakes restoration, as well as drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, and increased enforcement of existing clean water regulations. The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition -- which neither endorses nor opposes any candidate -- unveiled its presidential platform July 23, asking the candidates to explain how they will enforce clean water laws and support Great Lakes and clean...

Asbestos Case Tests Plaintiffs’ Use Of APA To Ease TSCA Litigation Options

A pending suit over EPA’s denial of environmentalists’ petition seeking to require reporting of asbestos uses under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is testing plaintiffs’ ability to use remedies in both the toxics law and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) to challenge such denials, potentially expanding plaintiffs’ litigation options. As such, the suit, Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) et al v. Wheeler , could create a new precedent, allowing environmentalists and other plaintiffs to use the APA’s “arbitrary...

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