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.

Agencies Appear Poised To Narrow Children's Health Research Grant Focus

EPA and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) are poised to end grant funding they have jointly provided for the past two decades to more than a dozen children's health research centers though officials say they will provide some funds for children's health issues though it is likely to be significantly less, and more narrowly focused, than in the past. EPA, for example, is planning to continue funding children's health research but it will now support agency priorities...

EPA reminds companies that TSCA inventory rule is in effect

EPA is reminding chemical manufacturers and processors that its rule requiring reporting substances to its Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) inventory of chemicals in commerce remains in effect despite a federal appellate court's ruling last month remanding part of the rule back to the agency, according to new notice from the toxics office. The May 23 notice advises that “no part of the rule has been vacated and that all requirements of the rule remain in effect.” The notice was...

Vermont, environmentalists urge court to remand mercury inventory rule

Environmentalists and the state of Vermont are urging a federal appellate court to reject EPA arguments aimed at dismissing their suit over its rule creating an inventory of mercury use, supply and trade and are instead calling for the court to remand the rule, charging the agency unlawfully omitted certain categories of companies from its requirements. “EPA’s Mercury Reporting Rule, which unlawfully carves out two major exceptions to Congress’s reporting requirement, will subvert EPA’s ability to prepare a complete and...

Revised EPA Agenda Sees Deadlines Slip For Major Obama Rule Rollbacks

EPA in its just-updated Unified Agenda of pending regulations is acknowledging that its deadlines have slipped considerably for many high-profile rollbacks of Obama-era rules, including climate standards for power plants and vehicles, as well as the 2015 Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction standard. While the agency earlier hoped to complete many major rules this spring, it is now officially projecting that several of these rulemakings will not be finished until sometime in the summer or even the fall -- an...

Senators Tout Bipartisanship On PFAS But Barrasso Seeks To Narrow Bills

Environment committee senators are pledging to take a bipartisan approach that includes environmentalists and industry as they seek to address polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), though committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-WY) is indicating that while the bills under review enjoy bipartisan support, they will have to be narrowed to win his approval. The discussion at a May 22 legislative hearing on bills addressing PFAS risks signaled the difficulty that lawmakers face, even as they seek to advance less controversial measures, such as...

NAS Backs Subclass Review For Flame Retardants, Highlighting PFAS Method

A recent National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report proposing a clustering approach of grouping flame retardant chemicals into subclasses for risk assessment is highlighting the emerging consensus that EPA and others are considering for addressing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), another large group of ubiquitous chemicals that are also subject to high-profile public scrutiny. NAS' May 15 report , “A Class Approach to Hazard Assessment of Organohalogen Flame Retardants,” recommends that the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) group organohalogen flame...

Funds are running out at EPA-NIEHS children's centers

Despite requests from key officials, grant funding from EPA and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) that funded more than a dozen research centers into environmental causes of childhood diseases is running out, as Congress has not provided new resources for the centers, whose existing grants were last issued in 2014. “The message we’re hearing is that this administration doesn’t want this research anymore,” Tracey Woodruff, director of the University of California San Francisco’s Program on Reproductive Health...

House Ramps Up Scrutiny Of Controversial EPA Science Data, PM Measures

House appropriators are ramping up their scrutiny of some of the Trump EPA's controversial science decisions, all but barring the agency from advancing its data transparency rule until after consulting with its own science advisors and then requiring the agency to seek National Academy of Sciences (NAS) review of any final data rule. “The Committee expects the Agency to take no final action on the [data transparency] rule until the Agency has concluded such consultations [with its Science Advisory Board...

State Regulators Float Plan To Bolster Oversight Of Water Contaminants

State regulators are outlining ways for state and federal agencies to better manage contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in all aspects of the water cycle, spurred in part by concerns over the time it takes to develop drinking water standards and the lack of coordination among state and federal entities, as evidenced in a patchwork of standards for perfluorinated compounds. A new report from the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA) and the Association of Clean Water Administrators (ACWA)...

EPA warns companies not to submit CBI on new chemical notices

EPA is warning companies to ensure that their notices of new chemicals for review -- which the agency is poised to post on its website -- do not contain trade secret materials and that it will be manufacturers' responsibility to ensure they submit a sanitized notice for public posting. EPA's toxics office sent a notice to its listserv May 20 warning of the upcoming change, will take effect May 30. On that date, EPA will begin publishing the premanufacture notices...

SAB Seeks To Expand Transparency Rule Review Beyond Wheeler's Call

A work group of EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB) is asking the agency a series of questions about its controversial science transparency rule, a move that appears aimed at broadening advisors' review of the measure beyond what Administrator Andrew Wheeler proposed last month. The work group on May 17 posted on SAB's website a series of questions on the proposed rule, which generally seeks to bar EPA's use of scientific research where the underlying data are not public, including how...

EPA Eyes Supplemental Plan As It Seeks To Speed Science Data Rule

EPA is considering issuing a supplemental plan for its controversial science transparency rule, a measure that is part of Administrator Andrew Wheeler's stepped up effort to complete the rule within a year -- though the effort faces widespread criticism, little regulatory justification and a massive number of public comments to address, sources say. "A decision on a supplemental rule has not really been made," one agency source says. "Nobody has pulled the trigger." But, the source adds that a supplemental...

Court Seeks More Briefing On Groups' Challenge To TSCA Evaluation Rule

A federal appellate panel is asking EPA and environmentalists to provide additional briefing on the petitioners' standing to challenge the agency's framework rule governing how it will evaluate existing chemicals under the revised toxics law and the ripeness of their suit after recent arguments in what one of the judges called a “very difficult case.” Issued hours after the panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit heard May 16 arguments in Safer Chemicals Healthy Families et...

Judges Hint At NGOs' Standing To Target Key TSCA Rule On Legacy Issues

Appellate judges appear to agree with EPA lawyers that environmentalists generally lack standing to challenge the agency's framework rule for evaluating risks of existing chemicals under the revised toxics law, but they left the door open to sue over officials' decision to preclude legacy uses from the scope of any evaluation. During May 16 oral arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, a three-judge panel peppered Sarah Tallman, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council,...

House Seeks To Boost PFAS Funds But Policy Push Unlikely To Slow

House lawmakers are stepping up efforts to provide funds to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) -- including a massive proposed $2.5 billion grant program to aid drinking water systems -- funds that seek to address contamination concerns in the short term though sources say they are unlikely to deter lawmakers from advancing policy measures, sources say. Such a spending provision is “a stop-gap measure” to make sure that drinking water that is currently contaminated is addressed, says Betsy Southerland,...

Republicans Detail Concerns Over Bipartisan PFAS Bills, Seek EPA Input

House Republicans are raising concerns that a suite of pending bills, many bipartisan, that seek to address contamination stemming from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) could limit EPA's ability to prioritize risks and short-circuit existing review processes and are calling on Democrats to allow the agency to provide further input. At a May 15 hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's environment and climate subcommittee, Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), the panel's ranking Republican, warned that if supporters of the...

On Eve Of Hearing, EPA, NGOs Spar Over Standing To Challenge TSCA Rule

On the eve of a key appellate hearing, EPA and environmentalists are sparring over the groups' standing to challenge one of EPA's framework rules for implementing the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), responding to a court order that asks the parties to address the issue in the upcoming oral arguments. In a May 10 filing , attorneys for the petitioners urge the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to consider two recent appellate rulings that the environmentalists say...

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