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.

EPA’s First Draft TSCA Evaluation Draws Sharp Criticism From Reviewers

Advisors reviewing EPA’s first draft chemical risk evaluation under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) have raised sharp concerns about several aspects of the draft assessment of pigment violet 29 (PV29), with some urging officials to gather more data because the draft does not support its threshold finding that the chemical doesn’t require risk management. During the course of their June 18-21 meeting in Arlington, VA, peer reviewers questioned EPA’s ability to make decisions with the limited information available...

EPA Finalizes Proposed Lead Dust Plan But Faces Likely Lawsuit

Facing a court deadline, EPA has issued a final rule that codifies its earlier plans to strengthen its standards identifying hazards from lead paint dust in residential facilities while declining to adopt a new definition of “lead paint,” an approach that appears likely to draw a suit from environmentalists who criticized the proposed version of the plans. EPA June 21 released a rule that strengthens its prior hazard identification standards from 40 micrograms per square foot (µg/ft 2 ) for...

NIEHS’ Birnbaum says EPA’s PFAS levels unprotective

Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), says the new health effects research on one of the most commonly found perfluorinated compounds indicates the safe exposure level for drinking water could be as low as 0.1 parts per trillion (ppt), significantly lower than EPA’s 70 ppt health advisory. New NIEHS research shows rats exposed to very low concentrations of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) develop pancreatic tumors, and if converted to a safe human drinking water level,...

EPA poised to unveil updated lead dust hazard rule

EPA is preparing to unveil June 21 new lead paid dust hazard standards, which are expected to be more stringent than the agency’s 2001 rule, after a federal appeals court in 2017 faulted the agency for unreasonably delaying an update to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) measure. The White House Office of Management and Budget finished its review of the final rule June 19, according to the office’s website. The agency says acting EPA Region 6 Administrator David Gray,...

EPA toxics deputy leaving for White House detail

Nancy Beck, the controversial deputy assistant administrator of EPA's toxics office and a former chemical industry lobbyist, is leaving the agency for a detail with the White House National Economic Council (NEC). An EPA spokesman confirmed Beck's move to the White House, adding, “EPA is pleased that Dr. Beck will continue to provide her knowledge and expertise in serving this administration and the country.” The spokesman declined to provide additional information, and Beck did not respond to a request for...

Senators ‘Hopeful’ Defense Bill Will Include Superfund PFAS Measure

A bipartisan group of senators say they remain hopeful that legislative language requiring EPA to designate perfluorinated compounds as “hazardous substances” subject to liability under the Superfund law will eventually be included in the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill, which is slated for consideration later this week. Their comments indicate that negotiations over the legacy waste issue are ongoing even as there is agreement on other provisions. Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Environment and...

Utilities Provide Cautious Response To Senate PFAS Bill Ahead Of Markup

Drinking water utilities are declining to take a position on bipartisan Senate legislation addressing contamination from perfluorinated chemicals through a variety of environmental laws, though they are concerned that the measure, slated for markup June 19, could set an adverse precedent by preempting EPA’s statutory process for setting standards. The utilities in a June 18 letter to Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY) and Tom Carper (D-DE) say they applaud the bipartisan efforts of the chairman and ranking member of the Environment...

AWWA

New England


Environmentalists move to intervene in methylene chloride suit

Environmentalists are asking an appellate court in Washington, DC, to allow them to intervene in industry’s challenge to EPA’s ban on consumer uses of paint-stripping products containing methylene chloride (MC), a move that may ultimately lead the case to be consolidated with environmentalists’ separate suit in an appellate court in New York. Environmental groups June 14 filed a motion to intervene in Halogenated Solvents Industry Alliance, Inc. (HSIA) v. EPA and Andrew Wheeler . According to the motion, neither HSIA...

EDF protests Trump EPA’s TSCA implementation

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is acknowledging the pending third anniversary of Congress’ broad, bipartisan overhaul of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) with a new report highlighting its major concerns with the Trump EPA’s approach to implementing the new law. The new report, “ Toxic Consequences : Trump's Attacks on Chemical Safety Put Our Health at Risk,” describes three “main attacks” on chemical and public safety, including EPA’s approach to reviewing new chemicals, its new rule and policy on...

Manufacturers ask EPA for phthalates TSCA reviews

Manufacturers have submitted two requests for EPA to evaluate risks from specific uses of two phthalates chemicals, DIDP and DINP, under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), likely establishing two of the next chemicals that will join EPA’s risk evaluation agenda. EPA’s toxics office announced the requests in a June 14 email to its listserv. TSCA requires that EPA inform the public of such requests within 15 days of receipt, which triggers additional deadlines for EPA to open a...

EPA Advisors Urged To Weigh Data For Key TSCA Risk Finding On PV29

Environmentalists are urging EPA science advisors ahead of their upcoming meeting to examine whether the agency provided adequate data for its draft conclusion that pigment violet 29 (PV29) does not pose unreasonable risk, stepping up their long-running effort to challenge EPA’s first assessment of an existing chemical under the revised toxics law. In June 11 comments to EPA’s Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC), which is slated to meet June 18-21 to review the agency’s draft assessment of PV29, several...

Report lists 475 facilities may be discharging PFAS

Environmentalists are pointing to new findings that at least 475 industrial facilities may be releasing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a list that defines the universe of private sector facilities that may face liability and fuel efforts to regulate releases under air, water and other laws. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) analyzed two EPA online databases and data from a New York survey to identify 475 industrial sites known to produce or use PFAS, or are suspected of using PFAS...

Trump Executive Order Could End Host Of EPA Advisory Committees

Key EPA advisory committees governing air quality policy, children’s health, environmental justice and environmental finance are among more than a dozen facing elimination after President Donald Trump issued an order requiring EPA and other agencies to disband one-third of their federal advisory committees (FACs) by Sept. 30. The June 14 executive order applies to panels agencies have created under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) of 1972, as well as those that are governed by FACA but authorized by...

Senators urge IG to probe EPA’s use of TRI data

Three Senate Democrats are asking EPA’s Inspector General (IG) to expand its ongoing review of the agency’s Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) program, to include how EPA uses companies’ emissions and other data to “identify potential threats to human health” and how EPA assesses the data to ensure its completeness and accuracy. “We are concerned that EPA may not be utilizing TRI data to inform its efforts to identify and respond to threats to human health. This is especially concerning for...

Senators Cut Broad Deal On New PFAS Rules But Drop Superfund Listing

Top leaders of the Senate environment committee have reached a bipartisan deal requiring EPA to craft a series of new drinking water, toxics and reporting rules governing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and are seeking to attach the legislation as an amendment to a pending defense bill that is slated for floor debate as soon as next week. But the legislative package , agreed to by Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY) and Tom Carper (D-DE), the panel’s chairman and ranking Democrat,...

EPA’s PFAS Groundwater Guidance Draws Wide-Ranging Criticisms

EPA’s interim draft guide for addressing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in groundwater is drawing wide-ranging criticisms, with environmentalists charging it is too weak, industry questioning its scientific basis and the agency’s procedures in developing it and states charging it does not adequately preserve their requirements. “Unfortunately, the draft Guidance suffers from serious deficiencies in the underlying scientific analysis and associated science policy decisions, and in EPA’s failure to comply with requirements for independent peer review, analysis of policy options,...

Oklahoma appeals suit seeking to block CWA jurisdiction rule

Oklahoma and an alliance of business groups are appealing a federal district judge’s order that refused to block enforcement of the Obama-era Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction rule in the Sooner State, teeing up a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit on whether that standard is causing “harm” to the state, its residents or industry. Plaintiffs in State of Oklahoma, et al., v. EPA, et al. , filed a notice of appeal June 11. They...

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