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.

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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.

New Hampshire approves strictest PFAS standards

New Hampshire July 18 adopted the strictest enforceable drinking water standards and groundwater quality standards for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the nation, finalizing the requirements just six months after they were first proposed and at levels much stricter than first suggested. The state legislature’s administrative rules committee approved the strict standards July 18, making the state the first to require local water entities, landfills and wastewater plants to test and treat for four PFAS, according to New Hampshire...

First Amendment Suit On Prop.65 Glyphosate Warning Poised To Proceed

A long-stayed constitutional challenge to California rules requiring cancer warnings for glyphosate pesticide products could be poised to proceed following federal appellate rulings on similar issues that the state was waiting on when it asked the court to delay imposing a preliminary injunction on its labeling rule in 2018. While parties in one of the two appellate cases the state is waiting on have not yet exhausted their appeals, a source representing Monsanto says the state has several options, including...

EPA Rejects Bid To Ban Chlorpyrifos, Clearing Way For Long-Sought Suit

EPA is formally denying environmentalists’ objections to the Trump administration’s decision to overturn an Obama EPA ban on agricultural uses of the widely-used and controversial pesticide chlorpyrifos, meeting a court-ordered deadline for a final decision that clears the way for a legal challenge on the merits of the reversal. “EPA has determined that the objections related to Petition claims regarding neurodevelopmental toxicity must be denied because the objections and the underlying Petition are not supported by valid, complete, and reliable...

Manufacturers settle precedent-setting lead-paint damages case

Paint manufacturers have reached a $305 million settlement with California local governments to address historic contamination from lead paint in older housing, ending nearly two decades of litigation that resulted in the first ruling upholding public nuisance claims against paint manufacturers for lead paint and requiring the product’s removal. The case “may set a new legal precedent for seeking remediation,” Reuters reported July 17. “Legal scholars say it could encourage new lawsuits against paint companies, and Californian local governments...

House Republicans Remain Hostile To Democrats’ Scientific Integrity Bill

House Republicans are showing little interest in supporting a bill being crafted by Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY) that seeks to codify scientific integrity requirements at EPA and other agencies, accusing Democrats of “weaponizing” the debate over federal science and faulting the bill for its failure to sufficiently address “research misconduct” and other issues. At a joint hearing of the House science committee’s research and investigations panels, Democrats expressed their backing for Tonko’s bill , H.R. 1709, which he has been...

Former industry lawyer takes lead role at OCSPP

Former American Chemistry Council (ACC) official, David Fischer, has joined the leadership team at the Trump EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OSCPP), a former agency source tells Inside EPA , replacing Nancy Beck, another former ACC official, after her recent departure for a White House post. While Fischer appears likely to provide the agency with new expertise as it scrambles to implement the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) given his previous work assisting industry adapt to...

New York, Connecticut signal push to address PFAS

Two Northeastern states are pushing ahead to respond to the growing public concern over the emerging contaminants per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), adding to the number of states unwilling to wait for EPA regulatory action. In the latest move, New York last week announced it will soon propose the nation’s strictest drinking water standards for two commonly found PFAS and will set a first-in-the-nation drinking water level for 1,4-dioxane -- all emerging contaminants that have prompted concern from the public,...

EPA moves to send methylene chloride challenge to 2nd Circuit

EPA is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to transfer industry’s challenge over the agency’s recent ban of consumer sales of the paint-stripping chemical methylene chloride to the 2nd Circuit, where environmentalists and labor groups previously filed their own challenges to EPA’s rule. In a July 12 motion , Justice department attorneys representing EPA write that they have conferred with industry attorneys, as well as with counsel to environmentalists, who are seeking to intervene...

Draft EPA Plan Seeks Sharp Limits On EAB, Sparking Litigation Warning

A draft plan circulating within EPA would sharply curtail the role of the Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) in a bid to speed permit reviews -- including possible elimination of the current administrative appeals process -- prompting warnings from critics that it could backfire by scaling back EAB’s role in building an administrative record that EPA can use to defend permits in court. “I am not sure it is going to achieve the benefits they think,” says an agency source. The...

Bolstering Asbestos-Ban Bill, AGs Agree To Chlor-Alkali Sector Delay

Bolstering prospects for a bill banning the manufacture and use of asbestos, a group of Democratic attorneys general (AGs) is supporting the bill while agreeing with GOP lawmakers and industry groups that the legislation may have to give more time for producers of chlorine used for water treatment to transition to non-asbestos methods. “The undersigned Attorneys General appreciate that the U.S. chlor-alkali industry may require additional reasonable time to transition from the use of asbestos diaphragms in its production processes...

EPA Faces Tough Questions As It Speeds TSCA Chemical Reviews

EPA is facing new questions from its scientific advisors and environmentalists over why it is not willing to take additional time to review and complete its first 10 evaluations of existing chemicals under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), with some questioning whether EPA’s haste will imperil the quality of the evaluations. While the law generally requires EPA to complete the first 10 evaluations by December, it also allows the agency to take an additional six months to do...

EPA expands controversial sulfoxaflor registration

EPA toxics chief Alex Dunn announced July 12 that the agency has expanded its registration of the insecticide sulfoxaflor, three years after an appellate court vacated the Obama administration’s registration of the product because EPA lacked enough information on risks that it may pose to pollinators. “We are thrilled to announce EPA has added new uses for the insecticide sulfoxaflor,” Dunn said in a July 12 conference call with reporters. The new registration allows the chemical to be used on...

House Approves PFAS Superfund Amendment Over GOP, Industry Objection

The House by voice vote July 12 approved an amendment to the defense authorization bill that would require EPA to declare within one year that perfluorinated chemicals are hazardous substances under the Superfund law, despite objections from GOP lawmakers and a number of industry groups, who fear significant new cleanup liability. Lawmakers July 11 also approved by voice vote several other amendments dealing with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), including one that would require EPA to add PFAS to the...

Senate Confirms EPA Waste Chief Wright In Party-Line Vote

The Senate July 11 voted along party lines to confirm Peter Wright to lead EPA’s waste office, overcoming Democrats’ efforts to block, or at least delay, the vote as they cited new ethical questions, his long-time chemical industry background and EPA’s failure, to date, to fulfill promises to regulate two perfluorinated chemicals. The Senate voted 52-38 to confirm Wright as EPA assistant administrator for the Office of Land & Emergency Management (OLEM). While Wright’s nomination has lingered for more than...

Wheeler replaces children’s center director

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler has appointed Jeanne Briskin, a long-time career employee, as the new director of the agency’s Office of Children’s Health Protection (OCHP), following his controversial removal of Ruth Etzel, a pediatrician and epidemiologist recruited to EPA for the post during the Obama administration. Most recently, Briskin has been director of the Conflict Prevention and Resolution Center in the Office of General Counsel “providing high quality mediation, facilitation and training services agency-wide,” Wheeler’s email states. According to Wheeler,...

House Poised To Debate PFAS Superfund Listing, Sparking GOP Criticism

The House is gearing up to debate an amendment to the defense authorization bill that would require EPA to list perfluorinated chemicals as hazardous substances under the Superfund law, a move that is already prompting strong opposition from a top Senate Republican opposed to the measure. The House Rules Committee July 9 ruled that the amendment, authored by Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) and Dan Kildee (D-MI), is in order, underscoring supporters’ hopes that the measure will be approved on the...

Rules Committee Allows House Debate On Suite Of PFAS Amendments

The House Rules Committee is allowing lawmakers to debate a series of amendments governing perfluorinated chemicals when lawmakers take up the annual defense authorization bill in the coming days, including a key amendment requiring EPA to quickly designate the chemicals as hazardous substances under the Superfund law. In addition to the amendment requiring EPA to designate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), the committee also allowed debate on...

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